Seven Moments
by Galindaba
Summary: Still getting ready to leave for their honeymoon, James and Lily think over their relationship and how it has changed since their years at Hogwarts. There have been many defining moments in there relationship, some bigger than others... (Sequel to Five Minutes.) (Rated M for swearing, some graphic violence and reference to suggestive adult themes.)
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: The world and the main characters in this story are all provided by JK Rowlings wonderful Harry Potter series.**

**Hey people! So this is my sequel to my uber long James and Lily story, the one before it being Five Minutes (so check that out if you wanna read this one!). Before I get started though I just want to thank the people who have given me continued support and inspired me to continue writing my take on this story. I know there are lots of versions out there and just thanks for reading this one too! :)**

**So this, obviously, is the sequel which means I'll be referencing what I've written before in certain cases and building one what I've done already, (hopefully!). This story is a little bit harder to construct because for some unknown reason I've decided to plan myself a rather complicated plot so some sections are informative to whats going on there. It also means that this one will be taking me a little longer to write. Hopefully I can stick to my plan and get going so that update dates aren't too far apart but, writer block does happen sometimes and it may take a week or more for a couple updates but I shall try my hardest to keep you from waiting for the next chapter. I'm still at university for a couple more weeks so there will probably only be one (possibly two) updates within this time cause I have assessments due. Please be patient with that**

**Just gonna say again, I'm not great with spelling and grammar but I do try my hardest. Please don't get mad if I spell things wrong or use the wrong word or miss letters off or something. I apologise for that in advance.**

**So...yeah. I think that's it. Here you go! :)**

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**Prologue**

James and Lily Potter were stood in their new home in Godrics Hollow at the bottom of the staircase. James was holding a suitcase of Lily's which was filled with only books and also just picked up a rather tattered old boot. The boot was smelly and brown with a hole in the toe. The bottom of the shoe was coming off and there were frayed laces that loosely tied into a bow behind the tongue. Inside, there was an insole with sweat stains on it as if hadn't been changed through its lifetime. To many people, this boot was garbage. It was a piece of rubbish which wasn't needed or useful and was unnecessarily cluttering up the house. But to James and Lily, this boot was exciting and adventurous for it was a port-key. An everyday object charmed to take them to a certain destination at a certain moment in time.

Most witches and wizards had very specific reasons for using port-keys. Either they couldn't apparate yet, there were no connections to the floo network at their destination or there was a large group of people heading out to the same location and it just made more sense. There were other ways of transportation of course; flying, the knight bus, trains and Ministry cars for those who could get a hold of them or were important enough to qualify for the use of them. But these modes of travel were long and tedious so most witches and wizards preferred the use of port-keys for a quick and easy journey.

For James and Lily, this wasn't particularly the case. Sure they would never have flown because Lily hated brooms, (James would have loved it). They wouldn't have used a train because after seven years riding one too and fro from Hogwarts, they kind of got a bit bored of them and of course they didn't qualify for ministry cars. Their new fireplace in their new home in Godrics Hollow hadn't been connected to the floo network yet either so the use of that was out of the question. Also, for this particular purpose, the knight bus would have been useless for them because, even though they knew they were travelling to their honeymoon destination, they quite simply had no idea where they were in fact going.

They hadn't originally planned a honeymoon, too concerned with the Order of the Phoenix to book one, or even think about where they would have liked to go. If they had booked anything, it would have been very last minute and who knew if they could even spare the time. It was their friends who had done this for them, knowing full well they wouldn't have thought to do it themselves. At their wedding, the day before, their friends had presented them with the boot as a present at the small gathering they had held after the ceremony. James and Lily were confused and, of course, sarcastic at first when the item was passed over to them, but when it was explained to them they were at a loss for words. It was one of the most thoughtful gifts they had been given as a couple.

They were told about everything but the location where the port-key would lead them too so, when they had arrived at their house that night, they had begun to pack, (stopping of course for the night). They carried on packing in the morning. James had finished within an hour and had packed for all weathers, having been told it might be necessary as Sirius was supposed to have checked the weather reports and had gotten confused whilst doing so. Lily had packed too but was far more indecisive than James and usually liked to start her packing days, or even weeks, before she needed to leave. Thanks to this, she had only actually been able to make a decision on which books she wanted to bring with her and what bag. She would have been able to pack clothes over the next few hours but the port-key was set to leave at a certain time and James had called her ten minutes previously telling her to hurry up. She went downstairs five minutes later, still not completely ready to leave. Not that it mattered too much as James had told her he would buy anything she needed for her whilst they were away.

'Where do you think we're going?' Lily asked James, 'Somewhere cultural?'

'Somewhere fun?' James counter-questioned.

'Somewhere exotic.' Lily hoped.

'Well,' James said, grabbing their remaining suitcases, 'Only one way to find out. Ready Evans?'

Lily smiled at her old name. 'Ready Potter.' she said, saying her new one.

They both grabbed onto the boot and waited with anticipation. Nothing happened. They were still three minutes or so early.

'Do you find this weird too?' Lily asked James as she suddenly realised how bizarre this would look to an outsider who had no idea what they were doing and why. They would just think that they were two crazy people wondering whether or not they should pack an old shoe.

'I find you weird.' James said with a wink.

'You married me.' Lily retorted, in a way that told him he couldn't use that against her anymore.

'I suppose.' James chuckled.

They stood in silence for a few seconds and Lily began thinking over the thoughts she had had in their bedroom, how their relationship had changed so drastically during Hogwarts. The ups and downs they had had in those years she had already gone over in her mind, trying to decide if she would change anything and she could truly say now that in their school years she wouldn't have. She had asked James upstairs when he thought their relationship had changed and he had told her honestly; the incident with Snape in their fifth year. She agreed with him. That was when things had started to develop. From then onwards she had begun to like him and then fall in love with him. She had pictured a future with him whilst at Hogwarts as well but she had never actually considered marrying him in those years. She hadn't expected to be twenty and married already. She had always thought that she would at least be thirty before she did anything this drastic to her life. And, just as she had upstairs, she had to wonder what had changed in her to make such a mature decision. And what had changed in James to make him ask such a question. What had happened to their relationship since they left Hogwarts that got them to where they were now?

'James?' Lily said with a questioning tone in her voice.

James looked at Lily and studied her face. 'There isn't enough time for you to go pack your other suitcase.' he said straight away with almost a warning look in his eyes as if he would be a little bit mad if she tried to go do so.

'Yeah I know. That wasn't what I was going to say.' Lily stated.

'Oh ok.' James shrugged, 'Then what?'

'How do you think our relationship has changed since Hogwarts.' she wondered.

'Didn't you ask me this already?' James frowned, 'I thought we dropped this subject upstairs.'

'Yeah I still thought over it.' Lily said, 'And you were right-'

'I always am.'

'-our relationship did change after that incident with Snape in fifth year, but that wasn't what I was on about.' Lily finished, ignoring James' interruption.

'Ok.' James began warily, 'Then what did you mean?'

'I meant,' Lily thought, trying to find the right way to word her sentence, 'like, after Hogwarts, what changed? Cause I never thought of being married to you back then.'

'Thanks.' James said sarcastically.

Lily ignored him again and went on. 'How did we get from us then to us now?'

James actually took her question seriously and thought about what she said. 'Ok, well, personally,' he started, 'I think there have been,' (he paused to do a quick tally in his head) 'seven defining moments which changed our relationship. Changed it to what we had at Hogwarts to what we have now.'

'Really?' Lily replied a little bit startled at how he could put a number to the changes.

'Yeah. Give or take.' James nodded, 'But we weren't always the ones to, you know…cause the change.'

'What do you mean?' Lily frowned, a little confused as to how something was able to change in their relationship without them instigating it themselves.

'Sirius and Remus were a big factor. We wouldn't be where we are now without them cause they were the ones to talk sense into me most the time.' James stated, 'Err…there's also Peter I suppose. Alice and Frank. Pretty big stuff happened cause of them I'd say and what happened with all of that. Hestia Jones before that. And Dumbledore changed us all up too…and, I guess, my mum and your parents as well.' he finished, looking at her in the eyes rather cautiously and hoping he hadn't upset her with what he had said, who he had mentioned.

But Lily didn't seem to be taking too much notice of him anymore and was instead, back into her own world. Reliving what had happened.

'Port-key's ready to go.' James said to no reply.

The port-key was set to take them to their secret location. There was a tugging behind the naval and they were swept of their feet and spinning around in transportation. And whilst they were whirring in the air to their honeymoon destination, Lily thought over what James had said. What it meant. How their relationship had grown and who had influenced them in those changes.

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**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: If I wrote one of these at the beginning of my story do you think I can leave it as that or do I have to write one every time? Just wondering.**

**Okay! Chapter one here we go! :)**

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**Chapter One**

James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew were sat around the dinner table in Remus Lupin's parent's house. James, Remus and Peter were just having a drink, a cup of tea for the former two and the latter was drinking an ice cold Butterbeer. Sirius was drinking a Butterbeer too but he was also scoffing down a sandwich because he had given his usual complaint of being hungry. He didn't really have time for it though. They were only having a short break after trying to sort through all of Remus' belongings to see what he would be taking with him to the Potter Mansion. He was going to be moving in the day after next and he wasn't fully packed yet. He was trying to determine what he actually used and needed nowadays, what he wanted to move into his new home, and, somehow, he had managed to convince his friends to help him.

The four of them had been at it for three or more hours now, having started at around eleven o'clock. (They were meant to arrive earlier to get a prompt start but James had struggled to get Sirius moving.) So far they had managed to sort through Remus' cupboard and all of his surface bric-a-brac such as his photos and posters and the little models he had of types of dragons. They had packed them all into boxes as well with their very own system; Remus passed James the stuff he wanted to take, James put it in the box, Sirius took it out the box, Remus took it off Sirius and handed it back to James, Sirius would try to take it out of the box again, James would slap his hand away and give the fully packed box to Peter who would tape it up, Peter gave the box to Sirius and Sirius would write something on the box which would tell the boys what they had packed in there.

After they had finished their drinks, and Sirius his sandwich, they made their way back over to Remus' - soon to be - old bedroom and continued with their unconventional system of packing. They started on the drawers underneath Remus' bed which mostly contained old toys, old school work and books. But there were some odd things in there too.

'What's this?' Sirius asked, who had abandoned his post with the pen through unrest and walked over to Remus who was busy trying to empty the drawers. He had picked up a little gold frame type object with several strings tied from one end to the other.

'It's a miniature harp.' Remus said, glancing up at the object that Sirius was sneering at in his hand. After he had seen what Sirius was talking about, he returned to handing James a lot of old text books which he obviously needed to take with him.

'What?' Sirius laughed, plonking himself on Remus' bed and putting his feet up on the bed side table which, coincidentally, was next to Remus' head. 'Why do you have a harp?' Sirius asked, poking Remus in the head with his toe.

'My grandma gave it to me.' Remus replied, jerking his head away from Sirius' sock covered toe, and giving James a box of quills and ink.

'Why didn't you throw it away?' Sirius questioned, giving it an out of tune strum and making a face at it.

'Because my grandma gave it to me.' Remus said.

'Well what do you want to do with it?' Sirius asked.

'Throw it away.' Remus shrugged, passing another book over to James who looked at the title mystified.

Sirius threw the hard over his head saying, 'Excellent choice'. It bounced against the door, leaving a little indentation in the wood thanks to years of being a beater and always using his full force when hitting or throwing things. He took no notice of his vandalism and continued to talk to Remus. 'We don't want any of your crap clogging up the place.' he joked.

'I sincerely doubt any one could clog up the place.' Remus answered, a laugh in his voice as he made harmless fun at the ludicrous size of the Potter mansion, to which James chuckled himself over. The mansion he had grown up in was ridiculously large. He could probably house a large village comfortably in that place.

'Oh contraire my friend,' Sirius said, shaking his index finger and standing up on Remus' bed in a slow, dramatic motion. 'It happened, noon, the other day. I was in the toilet and, let me tell you-'

'I'd prefer it if you didn't.' Remus said, standing up with a small box which had potion phials rolling around audibly inside it. He kicked the drawer shut with his foot and walked over to James with the box.

'Oh come on!' Sirius whined, throwing his hands down to his side like a little girl having a temper tantrum, 'It's a funny story!' he went on, turning to James for support, 'Right Prongs?'

'Err…yeah.' James said, raising an eyebrow and shrugging at Remus as he took the small box he was offered, 'It's…hilarious.'

'See.' Sirius boasted, plonking himself back onto the bed with a squeaky but surprisingly springy bounce.

'Still don't want to hear it.' Remus laughed, walking round his bed to the drawer the other side. He opened it and set to work on sorting the stuff out whilst James passed the box he had just finished packing to Peter to tape up.

'Fine.' Sirius pouted, almost snatching the box off of Peter and writing on it in huge black letters that began to dwindle and shrink as he ran out of room.

James looked at the box and sighed. 'My mum will see that.' he said with a small raise of his eyebrows as he read Sirius' message.

'What does it say?' Remus asked, not looking but instead, shoving a lot of old toys and comic books he had had as a child on his bed.

'Books and quills and shit and why do you have a miniature harp you prissy little cherub.' James read, taking out his wand and summoning another box from the flat-packed pile in the hallway. He began to put it together as Sirius began to go off on a 'this is awesome, shut up' rant.

'-and you'll know what's inside and I'm making memories and its awesome and-'

'Padfoot just cross out the word shit and its fine.' James said, cutting Sirius' speech short.

'Why though?' Sirius whined, 'We are adults! We are MEN!'

'We are.' Remus said motioning to himself and James, 'You're not. Cross it out. You know Prongs' mum doesn't like swearing and neither does mine for that matter so just cross it out cause you don't want to have to deal with her.'

'Why?' Sirius moaned.

Remus looked at him with a deadpanned expression. 'She raised a werewolf.' he said.

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Lily Evans was sat in her room attempting to fill out the forms she had to return to the wizard hospital, St. Mungo's, to apply for the healer training programme. It was a five year long course that began in late September and, at the end of it, she would become a fully-fledged healer, specialising in an area of healing which she had yet to choose. She assumed she would decide what she wanted her speciality to be after three years in the programme, training in whatever she had chosen for the final two, but she wasn't certain. The healer training programme was two whole years longer that the auror programme that James and the marauders were planning on applying for and there had to be a reason for that, didn't there? And the only solution that Lily could think of was the fact that you had to have a speciality to be a healer but you didn't necessarily need one to be an auror. Other than that, the training was pretty similar, (other than the obvious differences such as the content of the course). That was part of the reason she was putting in an application for that programme as well, as a sort of back-up plan.

Becoming an auror wasn't really what she really wanted to do. Healing was. Because as a healer she felt she could help more people and, in her opinion, make more of an impact. She could save a family by treating a mother or a father, curing a child or just ensuring that they were all healthy. She could make breakthroughs in healing potions and possibly, one day, even help someone with Remus' particular fate overcome it. She could discover a cure to dragon pox or at least a way to prolong the inevitable. She wouldn't be able to do that if she was an auror.

Sure, as an auror she could also put in a helping hand - contributing to the longed downfall of Voldemort, protect those in danger from him until that happened and ensure that her family was safe – but really, she would probably do more harm than good. And that was all down to her blood status. The auror department, those she worked for or with and her family would all be in danger if she threw herself into the thick of it. Not to mention James' wellbeing for she knew if they were together and out on auror business he would stop at nothing to protect her from harm. A chilling thought really. So healing was her ambition. And she was sure to get into the programme if only she could write a good enough personal statement.

She didn't want to admit it but it was actually hard for her to do. She had filled out the form now, detailing her role at Hogwarts as a prefect and head girl, (something which was sure to give her an edge as there was only one head girl each year!). She had written down her O.W.L grades and her predicted N.E.W.T's. Explained her previous work experience and even her entire history school of attended schools, which she was sure was just a way for the administration department to find out what her blood status was as they weren't legally allowed to ask for that on the application at the minute. (That law would soon be eradicated). Her years at primary school gave it away though as only muggleborns really attended such an institution. Yes, she had been extremely truthful in filling out her applications, even being able to include a rare letter of recommendation, sealed, from Professor McGonagall. But she was still struggling with the personal statement section which was the only thing she had left to do.

She didn't understand why she was having such difficulty with it. She could write a glowing testimony for somebody else, detailing all their best qualities and finest skills, but for herself, she just couldn't seem to put pen to paper. She felt as if she were boasting if she said she excelled in the art of charms and potion making but if she only said that she had adequate skills in these fields then she was selling herself short. If she said that she was caring and friendly then her mind just reminded her of the fact that she wasn't particularly nice to James and the marauders over the years, (even though they didn't particularly deserve the niceties when they were still bullying morons), and she had slapped her ex-best friend and told him that he didn't matter in her life. When she looked over these things she just didn't see herself as very friendly or caring. She had also stopped being friends with Hestia thanks to an ultimatum she had been given by her which could have been seen by outsiders as Lily choosing her boyfriend over her best friend when really, the situation demanded choosing a lifestyle that was not infected with prejudice and discrimination and that did not contradict her own beliefs. So, technically, she could say that she had moral fibre. But then she would have to explain why and it was just too complicated to go into and, if she didn't write it properly, she could just come off as an uncaring bitch.

The more she thought about it the more she saw herself in the worse light imaginable. Whenever she thought of something she could write down, she always seemed to find a way to talk herself out of it, thinking she couldn't possibly possess the qualities that she had thought of. She had considered just looking at the reference that Professor McGonagall had written for her but she knew that if she did, it would be worthless to the board of administration who dealt with the healer application forms. She had also asked her mum and dad for help but they were practically useless when it came to her skills. As the only witch they knew, they just thought that everything she did was impressive. They thought that she should just write everything she could do down, viewing it all as brilliant, even though it was only standard stuff. It was all rather frustrating.

She had written to James asking him for advice on what to write but he was useless too. He had just told her that she was brilliant and not to worry; St Mungo's would be mad to turn her down, with or without a personal statement. She knew he was busy helping to pack up all of Remus' stuff so that he could move into the Potter mansion but, rather selfishly really, she had expected him to drop it all and come and help her. She obviously couldn't really continue to expect that sort of attention now that they had left Hogwarts and would each be doing their own thing. Their relationship would change now. And so she guessed, for this at least, she was on her own. She needed to write this short essay and she had no help, no guidelines and no idea how to do it. There were only two days until it needed to be completed. It was all a bit much so, really, she should have been relieved when her mum called her. Instead she just became more anxious and nervous that she wouldn't get it finished in time and, as an extension of that, annoyed that her family didn't seem to understand the importance of it.

'Lily come help me prepare dinner please.' Heather Evans had shouted up to her daughter.

'I'm a bit busy at the minute.' Lily called back down to her, frustration clear in her voice. She was sat at her desk pouring over her application forms and really didn't think it was the time to be peeling potatoes.

'Now Lily.' Heather responded, a note of finality in her words that made Lily sigh and rise from her desk.

She left her room and descended the stairs, making her way into the kitchen where her mother was scrubbing some carrots with a vegetable brush over the sink. There were potatoes in a colander on the draining board next to her and a joint of beef seasoned with garlic and rosemary, a speciality of her mothers. Lily looked around the busy kitchen and sighed. Grabbing a sharp knife from the drawer and setting to work on the potatoes, she remembered what day it was and what it meant. She had been so consumed in her work, in trying to fill out those wretched forms and attempting to write that damn personal statement she had forgotten. It was Sunday. And Sunday meant a visit from Petunia and Vernon Dursley.

Apparently they had been doing this every Sunday since Petunia and Vernon returned from their honeymoon. Lily had been unaware of it as she had been at Hogwarts and her mother and father had never included this piece of information in their letters to her. The first she had heard of it was a week before hand which had been her first Sunday back from Hogwarts. It had sort of been sprung on her that Sunday, an odd precaution taken by her parents in case she put up a fuss, (something which she hadn't done). After that first meal with her sister and her husband though, she wished she had. It was three hours of pure torture and she was very reluctant to relive it which she was being forced to do today. Even worse, this week she was being made to prepare for it as well which basically just added two hours onto her purgatory.

'They'll be here in an hour and a half.' her mum said, putting a freshly washed carrot onto a chopping board and picking up another.

'Great.' Lily mumbled. 'You know mum I really don't have time to-'

'You don't have time for your sister?' her mother cut in, scrubbing a muddy home-grown carrot clean, the water that was running over it turning a murky brown as it fell into the sink.

'That's not what I meant.' Lily replied with a roll of her eyes, her tone challenging to her mothers. 'I've just got to write my personal statement for my training programme applications and I only have two days till I have to hand them in.'

'Lily you've been home for just over a week.' Heather stated, an obvious note in her voice which basically said that whatever Lily tried, she wasn't getting out of dinner _or _helping to prepare for it. 'That means you have also had a week to write this personal statement and if you haven't finished then that's your own fault. You knew you had to help me prepare for this dinner so stop complaining and peel the potatoes.'

'I am peeling the potatoes mum.' Lily said through gritted teeth. She stood doing her job in silence for a couple of seconds, taking the skin off of them just a little too thick so she was losing half of the potato. She then went about trying to correct her mum and explain to her, give her a viable excuse as to why she hadn't finished her personal statement yet.

'I haven't really had all week if you think about it.' Lily said, a little quietly, obviously not too confident in trying to contest her mother. Still, she went on, even after her mum's audible sigh. 'I had to unpack on the Saturday. We had this meal last Sunday where Tuney asked us to pack up all her old things so she could move them into her new house which we spent Monday and Tuesday doing. Wednesday we took the boxes round to hers and then did the shopping and then Thursday you wanted to have a good spring clean of the house because all of Tuney's stuff had finally gone so really, if you think about it, I only had yesterday and Friday.' she finished, quite proud of her argument, even becoming braver towards the end of it thanks to her Gryffindor nature. 'That's just not enough time to do it in!' she ultimately ended.

'Don't do this Lily.' Heather told her daughter straight, 'You've had plenty of time to do it and you still have plenty of time. Perhaps if you hadn't spent most of your time writing to James you would have finished it sooner.' she said plainly, 'Don't turn this around to be my fault. Just help me with dinner.'

'Fine.' Lily replied stubbornly.

For the next forty-five minutes, Lily peeled an abundance of potatoes, made a mix for a Yorkshire pudding and chopped up a portion of broccoli. She thought that, perhaps if she finished all of this then her mother would allow her to return to her bedroom and finish off her personal statement but that wasn't the case. Instead, she was told to set the table and clear up the living room before Petunia and Vernon arrived which they did at precisely one o'clock.

When they got there, she was stuck in a family commitment which wasn't going to be disturbed by anything. They went into the living room at first, for half an hour, to relax and have drinks, speaking with Richard Evans who had been sat reading the newspaper all morning being particularly unhelpful. At half one Heather announced that dinner was ready and the Evans' and the Dursley's piled into the dining room and sat down whilst Heather placed down serving bowls full of vegetables, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes and Yorkshire puddings, placing the joint of beef near Richard at the head of the table so he could carve it, something he did with precision and pride.

They family sat in an uncomfortable silence. Well uncomfortable for Lily who kept receiving wary looks off of Vernon and glares off of Petunia, the pair obviously still remembering the dinner the week before hand when an owl from Remus had interrupted their family meal, flying in through the window and landing on the chicken they had had. The atmosphere continued whilst everybody filled their plates with whatever they desired. Vernon's plate was twice as full as Petunias, something which Lily couldn't help but think about Sirius over for she knew that would be the amount of food he would have grabbed for himself. The only difference was Sirius would never put on any weight with it. Lily thought that rather unfair but it was obviously just the way Sirius' metabolism worked. Some people were like that.

When their plates were full, Vernon went into an apparently interesting story about a game of golf that he and his boss had had the day before. He explained that they were talking about Vernon's future at the company and how it looked to be as if he were set to run it all one day. Petunia listened raptly and Heather seemed mildly interested. Richard spent his time thoroughly focused on his meal whilst Lily just pushed her food around her plate, contemplating on what she should put into her personal statement. Her dad noticed this, even through his concentration of eating.

When dinner was over and the family had eaten dessert, (a lovely rhubarb crumble with custard that Petunia had brought over with her), they rose to go into the living room. All but Richard and Lily made it in as Richard had stopped her daughter in her tracks to see what was wrong with her, hoping at the same time that it had nothing to do with that boyfriend of hers.

'What's wrong their sweet-pea?' he asked her, motioning for her to retake her seat as he did hers. They needn't have done this really but Richard was stuffed from dinner and needed to sit down or else risk feeling a bit of sick. 'This isn't about the arrogant toe-rag is it?'

'No Dad it's not.' Lily replied in a bored voice, already tired of her dad's conception of James and the fact that he wouldn't use his name. And it had only been a week! He had already banned him from the house but when Lily said that was fine they'll just go to his, (also mentioning his mum works a lot and that his dad was unfortunately no longer around), Richard thought better of it and insisted they spend time in his house instead so he could keep an eye on them. Lily didn't plan on sticking to this rule but at least it meant she could have James over, even if it was under the watchful eye of her dad.

'Then what's wrong?' her father asked, the concern for his daughter flooding his voice now that he knew it had nothing to do with the boyfriend he didn't approve of.

'I have to finish writing my personal statement for my healer and auror applications, and I'm stuck enough on them as it is, but mum insists that I need to spend this time with Tuney and Vernon and you and her.' she explained, deflation in her words. 'You and Mum I don't mind about but I just don't get why I have to sit through any more glares or disapproving looks from Jonah and the whale when I genuinely have something important to finish.'

'Why is it so important to finish it?' Richard asked, not fully clear on what these applications meant in the wizarding world; what the muggle equivalent was.

'Well they decide my future.' Lily said plainly, 'It like…I dunno…an application for medical school here – the healer application at least – and the auror training programme is kind of like a course at university or whatever place you need to go to so you can train to be a police officer. And they have to be returned in two days. That's the final deadline to hand them in.'

'You want to be a doctor then? Or a policeman?' Richard asked, a little surprised at his daughters ambitions. He had never really realised what they were before. If anything he would have pictured her wanting to be a librarian. Or at least something to do with books. He had bought her enough of them in her lifetime.

'Kind of yeah.' Lily shrugged, 'More the doctor one. That's a healer in my world. James wants to be a policeman though. An auror.' she pointed out in a hope to earn some brownie points for him.

'Mmmhmm.' Richard murmured, not wanting to be impressed that the boy wanted to help uphold the law.

'It was his idea not to see each other before we had to hand them in because of how important they are to get right.' she went on, singing her praises for James just wishing her dad might think twice about how he judged him from an old story Lily had told him a lifetime ago.

Richard just ignored comments about James though. 'Well if these applications are that important then go finish them.' he said, 'I'll deal with your mother.'

'Really?' Lily smiled, standing up and hugging her dad, 'Thank you daddy!'

'You're welcome.' Richard replied, hugging her back before letting her go, watching her skip to the stairs and race up them in an eagerness he could only compare to the time that they had bought her a new doll when she was six and had left it in her room. She wasn't six anymore though. His little girl was growing up. Fast.

* * *

The boys had almost finished packing Remus' old room up. They had spent the night there in hammocks that James had brought with him from his place, hanging them from the beams that ran across the ceiling of Remus' room. They swung in them like little children until one o'clock but then decided they should get to sleep so they could get an early start that day and it had paid off. That day, James and Peter had managed to take all but twelve of the boxes they had packed over to the Potter mansion and into the room which would become Remus'. Whilst they had been doing this, Remus sorted out the last of his things and packed them into his old Hogwarts trunk. Sirius however, feeling unappreciated and bored with the packing, had set to building a fort out of the boxes they had packed the day before in the corner of Remus' room. They were the twelve boxes that James and Peter hadn't moved as Sirius was sat behind them sulking, hiding underneath the cover of the hammocks that he had used as a tent top. Nobody wanted to deal with that at the moment.

Remus was moving around the room, a bit quicker than he had been previously, the thought of finishing and finally moving out spurring him on to work faster. He was packing his clothes, the last thing he had to do, into his truck which lay open on the stripped down bed, his duvet and pillows now providing an inside seating area to Sirius' fort, (They would get them into a large bag or something when it was time to move the last of his things out). He didn't fold his threadbare clothes as he slung them into his trunk, working off of the theory that they couldn't get much more tattered anyway. They were creased and thrown in haphazardly, over flowing onto his bare mattress when two loud cracks, one straight after the other, alerted him, (and Sirius), to the fact that James and Peter had returned.

James was reading a letter when he apparated in, as if it was no big deal to concentrate on reading at the same time as finding your way to a different location without splinching yourself. He made it look effortless when any wizard worth his salt could tell you that it was a difficult and dangerous thing to do. But then again, these things had never bothered James. This was the boy who had mastered a high risk transfiguration, becoming an animagus, when he was just turning sixteen. If you put his accomplishments into statistics, he could probably master things that wizards of thirty years were just learning by the time he was twenty. And yet, he had chosen to put his skills towards pranking the school and bullying the Slytherins. Now that he wasn't at Hogwarts though, Remus couldn't help but wonder what he was going to concentrate his efforts into. He had a hunch though.

'From Lily?' Remus asked him, nodding his head towards the letter as James read it with a smitten smile on his face, as if he was just as in love with her hand writing as he was with her.

'Yeah.' he replied, not tearing his eyes from the piece of parchment in his hands which had creases across it, scars of where it had been folded.

'You heard a lot from her then this past week?' Remus continued the conversation as he stuffed a load of old socks into the toes of his shoes as a way for them to retain what little shape they had left whilst being sucked through the small tube of transport which was what you could only describe apparition to be like. He then tossed them into his trunk with a small throw, almost missing as throwing wasn't particularly a mastered skill of his.

'We write.' James shrugged as if it was no big deal.

'She writes to me too.' Sirius yelled from inside his fort as if he thought there were three brick walls between them.

'No she doesn't you just steal my letters.' James said offhandedly, in almost a murmur. Sirius heard him, though it didn't stop him shouting.

'They have my name on them.' he said, the pout on his face, though not visible to James, Remus and Peter through the boxes, clear in his voice. He was obviously feeling a bit left out which, really, was his own fault. He was the one who had isolated himself from them in a tiny room by stacking cardboard up between them and flinging a sheet over the top.

'You change them to say that.' James said, folding the letter up and shoving it in the back pocket of his deep blue jeans.

'Still counts.' Sirius said, finally emerging from his fortress of escape by popping his head over the wall of boxes, all the hammocks falling to the floor apart from one which draped around his shoulders like a thinning fur cape.

'No it doesn't.' James laughed, throwing a piece of screwed up spellotape at Sirius eye, aiming spectacularly.

'Ow!' Sirius said, even though it hadn't hurt him at all. It had barely tickled really but he was dramatic so, to him, it had practically taken his eye out. 'Yes it does!' he said, holding his hand over his eye and barging his way through the boxes until the contents that they had packed away oh so nicely spilt out onto the floor. 'She writes to me cause she loves me more than you!' he went on before collapsing onto Remus' bed and yelling to the ceiling, 'My eye! My eye! I'm going blind! Somebody save me!'

'So he's become needier since leaving Hogwarts.' James stated to Remus with a chuckle in his voice as Remus rolled his eyes.

'Well he's not getting the attention from the girls now and-'

'I'm extremely frustrated, you know?' Sirius butted in, cutting Remus off half way through his explanation. He sat up, his eye suddenly all better now he was to go on with the rant that had started the day after he and James had returned to the Potter mansion. James had heard it for almost a week now but, apparently, Sirius wasn't done, 'It's like…' he began, seeming to be choosing his words carefully, 'You go from having lots of lip-smackingly gorgeous girls who are willing to do stuff with you and have-'

'Please don't.' Peter whispered from the demolished box fort which he had been attempting to rebuild, whilst repacking the boxes of course, working silently and unnoticed. Remus was too busy packing his trunk with clothes, James was soaking in every word of Lily's letter and Sirius was being dramatic. Peter would have continued his work quietly if Sirius hadn't started speaking about the things that made him uncomfortable; girls, popularity, sex. He didn't have any of it and the way Sirius went on about missing it, even though he was sure to get it back when they all started in the auror training programme, made him depressed to know he would never have it. And he didn't really want to hear about how great it was again and again and again. So he had pleaded, in a small voice, for him to stop. And for once, Sirius did stop. But Peter hadn't noticed the sharp look James had given him which had told him to do so. All he had seen was Sirius' little annoyance afterwards.

'Oh come on!' Sirius said, standing up and glaring slightly at Peter, 'You virginal twats!'

'He's also become much more verbally abusive.' James said to the room at large, only with a very specific aim to make Peter feel better. As if it wasn't his fault and it was just the way Sirius was; nothing to worry about really.

'And you've become a dainty ponce with all your fancy words and…and reading the dictionary and…stuff.' Sirius spluttered to James, now starting to calm down as he couldn't particularly think of a good come back and it had thrown him off his game.

'No less dramatic though.' James said, grinning over at Sirius for he knew he was annoyed at him for making him shut up. Nothing was more fun than irritating your best friend.

'Don't think he will ever be less dramatic.' Remus chuckled, taking the last bundle of mismatched socks out of his top drawer and throwing them into his trunk. He closed the lid and sighed as he stood staring at it for a split second. He was now finished packing. He was officially moving out of his parents' house and in with his two best friends in the world. And James' mum of course.

'Well he wouldn't be our mutt if he did.' James smirked at Sirius, walking over to close the drawers that Remus had left open and empty in his dresser.

'I think…that's it.' Remus said, looking around his now empty room. There were no pictures on the dresser and no clothes inside. There were no scraps of parchment on his desk and the shelves above it were completely devoid of books. The bed was stripped so bare you could see the springs starting to pop out of the mattress along with the dip in the middle that had formed from years of Remus sleeping in the same spot. The floor was free from rubbish and the walls were free from posters, (though there were faint marks and clumps of sticky residue left behind on the wall paper from the spellotape Remus had used to pin them up). Really, if you didn't see the remaining boxes and the trunk on the bed, you wouldn't know anyone had been living in there at all.

'Thank Merlin!' Sirius said, standing up and wiping his brow as if sweat was dripping down his forehead, 'We've been doing this for hours!' he placed a heavy hand on Remus shoulder, 'I'm exhausted!'

'You built a fort.' Remus said incredulously.

'Yeah.' Sirius nodded, patting Remus once before placing his hands on his hips and looking at his, now broken, fort. 'And it was hard work.'

James chuckled and said, 'Don't try to understand him.' He then walked over to Peter and picked up a couple of boxes which Sirius had labelled 'school stuff which should be burned. Really it's the only sensible option' before turning back to Remus and telling him that he, Sirius and Peter would transfer the rest of Remus' belongings to his room at the Potter mansion whilst Remus went to say a final goodbye to his parents. Remus agreed.

He watched his friend's disapparated with three lightning loud cracks before he turned to his bedroom door and exited his bedroom, walking across the small area of space that served as a hallway for the bungalow which the Lupin family had lived in for as long as he could remember. He reached the living room door and took a deep breath before walking in. He was only moving out and it wasn't goodbye forever, but with the state of the wizarding world at the moment, it could be.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 2

**So this is chapter two. :) This is is it for today though cause I have to write some more! This of course is James and Lily reuniting after a week apart as all 'after Hogwarts' stories must have! (There is also Order stuff at the beginning)**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Two**

Now it was the summer holidays, and many of his responsibilities that tied him to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were over for a couple of months, Albus Dumbledore was able to focus on other areas of the wizarding world which he believed sorely needed his attention. He had looked at them during the last school term, leaving Professor McGonagall in charge of keeping his whereabouts concealed from the students of Hogwarts, and the staff, to ensure that no one knew he had left. That was really something he shouldn't have done. Of course, he returned to the school for the farewell feast but had been unable to make it to his traditional end of year meeting with his two head students, (in this case, Lily Evans and James Potter), leaving them notes instead explaining in minimal detail that he was unavailable. Apart from Professor McGonagall, James and Lily were the only other souls who knew he wasn't at the school. Nobody else had a clue. None of the students, teachers, the school board, the ministry, the children's parents or even Voldemort and his followers knew that he had vacated the premises for little over a month. And that was exactly the way he had wanted it.

During this time away, he had gone to speak to many people who had known Tom Riddle back in the day. Most were unwilling to talk, fearing for their own lives, but others were either less concerned for their own safety or had been given a sneaky drop of veritaserum by Dumbledore himself in hope that something he discovered may help bring down the radical tyrant Tom Riddle had become. Most people he had spoken to and interviewed were from Tom Riddle's school years. They hadn't been much help though. He had also spoken to Tom Riddles previous employers, working off of a theory he had gained from speaking to his old friend and enemy Gellert Grindlewald who had a similar mind set to that of Voldemorts. That had proved most unuseful but he had gained phials upon phials of memories that he was sure held some sort of key to Voldemorts inevitable downfall. It wasn't obvious to him yet though which frustrated him greatly. He had to be missing something but he couldn't quite figure out what. So although he understood the man better for it, he still had no way in hell to stop him for good. All he could do at the moment was instruct the Order of the Phoenix on how to proceed.

The Order of the Phoenix was a small group of the few people he genuinely trusted, enlisted to help and continue with his work against He Who Must Not Be Named. They were there to help him out when he was unavailable to do it himself, which, thanks to his role at Hogwarts, was basically the school year. But during this time the Order had become much more than that, much more that he had originally planned. The movement was, now, a symbol of hope to those who knew about its existence and, in his view, it was the sole drive in the fight against Voldemort and his army of death eaters. It was the Order of the Phoenix that had been able to save the lives of many innocent muggles and muggleborns, blood-traitors and half-breeds.

The Order of the Phoenix was doing many things in the fight to stop Voldemort winning control of the wizarding world. They went out to where they knew attacks were taking place and helped those in need. The arrived after unknown attacks and fixed the damage done, (of course some damage was irreparable). They tracked suspected death eaters or known death eaters and attempted to catch them in the act so they could legally to send them to Azkaban, (though that was pretty useless solution these days), or they just extracted information out of them before wiping their memories. They helped with the protection force for known muggleborns, blood-traitors and half-breeds or else help keep those who were being specifically targeted by Voldemort safe. They went out recruiting for the side of good or else, in search of crucial information, trying to infiltrate Voldemorts army and learn details that could possibly help them in the fight against his dark magic. They did a lot of things, the Order, but they wouldn't be able to do any of it, they would have no idea what to do first, where to go, what to look for or what to do, if Dumbledore wasn't pulling the strings, if he hadn't received information that nobody knew how he had gotten, if he didn't seem one step ahead of Voldemort at crucial times. But they were grateful he had because, in their eyes, they were winning.

Of course, the Order of the Phoenix was made up of quite a few optimists who would believe this even if they were losing. There was Elphias Doge, Arabella Fig, Benjy Fenwick, Marlene McKinnon, Dorcas Meadowes and Fabian and Gideon Prewett, Sturgis Podmore, and Rubeus Hagrid, all known for their optimism and faith. They were positive that they would win this war, that they _were_ winning this war. Their efforts weren't in vain and, even though they were unable to save some of the people Voldemort had been targeting, (quite a few from his old orphanage), they had been able to successfully put others into hiding and out of Voldemorts reach so he was unable to complete his goal. They had managed to help when there had been attacks and they had even been able to predict some of them and prevent them at points. To these members, the Order was strong and impenetrable.

There were of course the pessimists of the group, Aberforth Dumbledore for example, who believed that everything they were doing was a waste of time but kept on fighting anyway as if there was some other force in him driving him to do the right thing in this situation. There was also Mundungus Fletcher who was a con-artist extraordinaire by trade and a wimp by nature. He wanted out so much but was a little bit too much of a coward to go against his word even though he was free to do so at any point, (his role being more of a research one, so he was easily replaced). In his view however, as they had already lost Caradoc Dearborn and Dadalus Dearborn who were both killed by Voldemort. It wouldn't be long now until he was to follow. By staying in the Order, he didn't expect to survive but, on the other hand, he didn't expect to survive by quitting either. It was really a no win situation in his eyes.

After that you had the realists. McGonagall, Alastor Moody and Dumbledore himself who knew that their efforts alone wouldn't bring down Voldemort but who also knew that it was their responsibility to attempt to do so or die trying. Of course, Dumbledore had to be realistic and he was maturely so, as was McGonagall. Alastor Moody took on a different approach and was just rather blunt and brutally honest when it came to an either or situation. When he had been speaking to Benjy Fenwick, Fabian and Gideon Prewett and Marlene McKinnon about a preventative mission they had been instructed to go on by Dumbledore, he had literally said, 'If you don't pay attention, you will die'. It was his self-proclaimed job to instil a sense of 'constant vigilance' into the members of the Order of the Phoenix because that was the only way they were going to win this war. It didn't occur to him that he may be shaking their confidence as he did so.

The Order, just like Voldemort and his followers, had meetings. Really, despite what the two groups were doing, fighting against each other, guarding or gashing, caring or killing, you had to admire the organisation skills they showed. The difference between the meetings though, aside from their main goals, was the way they came about. Voldemort and his death eaters met once every two weeks or whenever Voldemort had something big he wanted them to do, someone in specific he wanted them to destroy. All the death eaters attended their weekly gathering, going to the same little shack, in a concealed forest out of the way somewhere, at the same time every week. If they were to attend a spontaneous meeting, their dark mark tattoos would burn, summoning them to, of course, that same little shack in the forest. Really, it was no surprise that the Order had managed to figure this out and follow them there every week on a Thursday evening at six o'clock. The one thing Voldemort had gotten right though, were the enchantments he had used to surround his property which alerted him to unwelcome guests. The Order had never been able to get inside the building, (if you could call that run down hut a building), merely stand outside the perimeter and wait for the death eaters to emerge, half the time chatting excitedly about what Voldemort had wanted them to do. This was how the Order received half of their information on what the death eaters were going to do next. The one time Order members had tried to go further and get inside to listen to everything Voldemort was saying, they had been killed by Voldemort himself. That was how they had lost Caradoc and Dadalus Dearborn.

The Order took a different approach to their meetings. They were never scheduled precisely. At a meeting, Dumbledore would give them a rough idea as to when they might possibly be meeting again but it never panned out. They met occasionally at different places. Sometimes they met three times a week but, other times, they would go over a month without seeing any of the other members. It was only when new information came to light, when whoever it was who had been assigned to watch Voldemorts shack for the month went to tell Dumbledore new information he or she had discovered. When this happened, the Order were all called together, all via different methods of untraceable communication, (never by owls or memos for they could be intercepted), and told what the plan was. It was an untraceable, unknowing, unplanned chaos but, for some reason, it worked well for them. Plus, none of the death eaters had been able to track them so far.

Recently, they had been meeting a bit more often, (still in a different location each time), thanks to the imperius curse that had been placed on the ministers assistant a few weeks before hand. It had forced the poor young lad to read some files which contained confidential information pertaining to the muggle prime minister. The boy had lost his job the day after he had been caught and, as he had claimed he had only acted under the influence of the imperius curse, the head of the auror department wiped his memory. Before Dumbledore had had a chance to speak to him. So now, as the Minister of Magic and the head of the auror department weren't particularly up to sharing, (no matter how Dumbledore or Alastor Moody asked), the order had no idea whether Voldemort had received the information inside and they had no idea what that information was so they were all trying to work tirelessly to find out. Only when they had figured that out could they know what they were dealing with. And unfortunately, they had nothing more to go on so really, when they met, all they were doing was floating theories.

Most of the theories that the group suggested were, for all intents and purposes, stupid. Gideon and Fabian Prewett were completely convinced that those files contained the undeniable proof that the muggle prime minister was actually a ghoul, backing this theory up with the fact that they had never actually seen the man themselves. Dumbledore dismissed this and told them to stop floating such ridiculous ideas for they were only wasting time. Other theories were actually more credible. Dorcas Meadowes suggested that it could have something to do with a link between the prime ministers family and the wizarding world but no one could think of a viable connection. So they had all decided the information had something to do with whether or not the muggle world would have a general election that would select a new Prime Minister.

They needed to find out if this was the case and what information that file contained. Because if it was announced that a general election in the muggle world would take place, the candidates running for Prime Minister would be in critical danger from Voldemort. If he could take control of the muggle Prime Minister, infiltrate their campaigns and fix the polls, then who knows what he could do after that. He could bring in horribly harsh laws to the muggle world which would decrease the population and make it easier to control. Wizards could take over. Voldemort could win. The Order needed to make sure this didn't happen. They just had to know what was in that file because, if Voldemort had received that information, they wouldn't know what they were dealing with. They might not be able to stop him. And the death toll could rise.

* * *

The first of August brought two things to Lily Evans. One: Today was the day she was to hand in her applications to the Ministry of Magic for the auror training programme and, perhaps more importantly, to St. Mungo's for the healer training programme that was run there. Two: She would be seeing James and the marauders again for the first time since they left Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She couldn't decide which one she was more excited about. Or nervous about for that matter. On the one hand, she was taking a huge step in her life applying for such prestigious programmes, betting on herself and her ability to succeed in getting into at least one of them. It was a life changing move. On the other hand, she hadn't seen James for over a week which, considering they saw each other every day whilst at Hogwarts, was a big deal. And to top that nerve-racking meeting off, the other marauders would be accompanying James to meet her so they wouldn't have any alone time to say hello properly. Still she was excited to see them all again.

She sat outside Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlour in the hot summer sun nursing a cherry wood-smoked porter and rosemary flavour ice-cream with brown sugar and cayenne pepper-dusted peanuts, pecans and almonds. She wanted to be adventurous but it wasn't particularly working out for her. The cayenne pepper-dusted peanuts didn't taste too great and just reminded her why she didn't eat things like nuts and trail mix very often. However, she could see Florean Fortescue through the window, looking very dashing in his work uniform, and thought it would be too rude to throw it away or just stop eating. Plus, she didn't want to hurt his feelings as she had had a small 'celebrity' crush on him ever since her third year at Hogwarts. Now she had James it had diminished somewhat but somehow, she still cared whether she upset him by disliking any of his daring ice-cream flavours. All she could do to excuse herself from this ice-cream was wait for James and the marauders to come and meet her so they could whip of to the Ministry of Magic together. She wouldn't feel as guilty for leaving the ice-cream if they arrived.

They were due any minute now but Lily knew they'd be late. They had planned to meet at half ten but, because Sirius was a lazy arse bugger who didn't get out of bed until the middle of the afternoon, (something Lily would love to be able to do), James had written her a note saying they would be later than they had originally planned. She felt kind of sorry for James, and Remus now he was living with them, to have to get Sirius out of bed that morning. He wasn't exactly a morning person so it was a job and a half. Neither was she though so she did sympathise. James, however, had no problem with mornings and as they shared a room, (still a bizarre thing to Lily considering all the rooms that were available in the colossal mansion James lived in), it was up to him to shift Sirius' carcass out of bed and down to Diagon Alley. If anyone could hoist Sirius off of that mattress then James could, usually with the offer of food.

She waited until ten past eleven at Fortescue's, spooning small mouthfuls of her unfortunate tasting ice cream into her mouth. She gave polite smiles to the people who passed her as they walked down the cobbled path, (they had obviously known her from Hogwarts), and returned waves to the ones who said hello. She drew circles on the wobbling wooden table she sat at whilst tapping her foot until she heard a familiar chuckle echo down the street. Her nerves about seeing them all again suddenly vanished and, not caring about being rude anymore, Lily stood up and started down Diagon Alley to that all too familiar laugh. She saw the four of them walking a small pack down the street, joking and grinning with each other as they always did.

Peter was at the rear, which wasn't an unusual occurrence, trying to keep up. His small blue eyes were watering a bit more than normal and Lily could only assume this was because of the sunburn that stretched across his cheeks and nose. Remus walked closest to him. He was wearing a brand new coat, (no patches!), and looked ten times healthier than when Lily last saw him. His brown hair looked darker, thicker too, and the small visible scars you could usually see seemed a bit fainter. Sirius looked as handsome as ever, his laughing grey eyes shining as he stole a couple of owl treats from a large bucket outside Eeylops Owl Emporium and flicked them at Peter laughing. He was still laughing when a hand whacked him around the back of the head, messing up his shoulder length black hair ever so slightly. He had been smacked by James.

Lily beamed when she saw him, even though he hadn't seen her at first. He looked exactly the way she remembered, not that she thought he would change that much in just over a week. He was still tall, though from the distance, she could have sworn he'd grown at least half an inch, and handsome as all hell. His hazel eyes glinted through his glasses as he laughed at something Remus had said. He reached out and pushed his best friend to the side slightly in jest, the short sleeve of the t-shirt he was wearing, (which had the ironic faded picture of a male deer on it and bold words that read 'Go Stag' across it), rode up a little to reveal just the tiniest bit more of his arm. He walked with that arrogant swagger he had had ever since she could remember, which just cried out 'aren't I awesome' as he made his way down the street, his hands back in his pockets. Her stomach gave a little somersault as she made her way towards him. He noticed her just before she threw herself into his arms to hug him tightly.

'James!' she said, slinging her arms around his neck.

'Wow. Hi.' James began, a little taken aback from the force on which she threw herself at him, 'I'm sorry, do I know you?' he went on to joke before he hugging her back, picking her up of the ground slightly, smiling as much as she was at seeing her again. He put her back down on the ground and looked at her shining emerald green eyes with a wide grin. He tucked her dark red hair behind her ear resting his hand on her cheek, the other hand around her waist, and stared at her happily just as the other marauders noticed that he had actually stopped.

'Don't move Prongs.' Sirius started as he, Remus and Peter walked the short distance back to where James and Lily stood, 'It may bite.'

'I'll bite you.' Lily said to him, her arms still wrapped around James' neck, James now wrapping both around her waist and holding her tightly. She felt him chuckle as she looked over to Sirius with raised eyebrows.

'That a promise?' Sirius teased, waggling his eyebrows at Lily with a mischievous smirk.

'Ignore him.' Remus smiled at Lily, shaking his head slightly at Sirius' insinuation whilst Peter, who stood next to him, waved a little shyly at her.

'Don't ignore me!' Sirius pouted, scowling at Remus for a moment before opening his arms to Lily and saying with a giant and rather frightening grin. 'Where's my hug there Lilykins?' he said to her, waiting for her to leave James arms and walk into his. James gripped Lily a little tighter around her waist.

'You're not hugging her.' James stated, 'You made me wait to say goodbye to her on the platform so you can wait to say hello.'

Sirius arms collapsed to his side and he said, with the straightest face, 'That is really childish Prongs.'

James snorted and pulled Lily round to his side, releasing one of his arms from her waist but keeping the other one there securely. Lily mimicked his stance with her arm around him.

'What do you mean made you wait?' Remus frowned in confusion, taking a small step back to allow a small, doddering old witch through the middle of the group who was muttering under her breath about the 'damn kids thinking they own the bloody street'. They were kind of creating a blockage in to flow of traffic down Diagon Alley.

'Did I forget to tell you?' James opened with a smirk at Sirius whose face quickly fell. 'Sirius got a bit emotional on the platform after you left.'

'What?' Remus laughed, folding his arms and looking to Sirius with his eyebrows raised in mocking question.

'Let's get one thing straight here,' Sirius began, 'I did not-'

'He cried.' James interrupted.

Remus roared with laughter, clapping Sirius on the back who didn't look too impressed. In fact he down right glared at James who just smirked once again and pulled Lily in a little tighter to himself. She was trying to smother her own giggles.

'Why you laughing?' Sirius moaned.

'I'm not.' Lily tried to say innocently, her expression saying otherwise.

'Aw mate don't worry.' Remus said, calming down his laughter 'I promise we won't make fun of you for this.'

Sirius didn't look convinced. 'Really?' he asked sceptically.

'Really.' Remus said with a sincere nod, placing a hand on Sirius' shoulder, 'We wouldn't want to make you cry.'

James laughed with a nod of his head in improvement at Remus' joke towards Sirius. Peter tittered along with him, the sun burn across his nose cracking slightly as if it was about to peel.

'Should we go?' Lily said, now wanting to get the whole ordeal of handing in the training programme applications over and done with as she had now gotten over the whole, 'meeting the marauders' thing.

'Sure thing.' Remus said to her before turning to Sirius, 'Ladies first.' he said with a gesture of his hand and a boyish smirk on his face. Lily noticed he seemed happier and full of jokes.

Sirius scowled at him, narrowing his eyes in an attempt to wipe the teasing expression off of Remus' face. It didn't work. So instead he just shook his head and started to walk down to the leaky cauldron where they would take the floo network over to the Ministry of Magic. They had all voted it was a nicer way to travel there for the first time rather than flushing themselves down the loo as was the norm with employees there.

Remus followed after Sirius and guided Peter along with him, allowing Lily and James to walk on their own just behind them. When Lily tried to follow however, James held her back for a moment.

'Aren't we going with them?' Lily asked, looking up at him as he smiled at her.

'In a minute.' James replied, turning her around to face him again and looking into her eyes. He tipped up her head slightly by a finger under her chin and leant down to kiss her softly on the lips. He pulled away after a lingering moment. 'Hi.' he smiled.

'Hi.' Lily grinned back at him.

They looked at each other for a couple seconds longer before they heard Sirius calling over his shoulder and down the street in the loudest voice he could possibly muster, 'Are you coming lovebirds?'. James chuckled and shook his head slightly before offering his arm to Lily so that she could link hers through. They caught up with Remus, Sirius and Peter at the pub.

As they walked through the door, James called a greeting to Tom, the young landlord who had just had to take over the family business, only two years out of Hogwarts. It hadn't originally been planned that way but his father had just been killed by some of Voldemorts followers right before the end of the last school term. James had found out when he had returned home from Hogwarts. As his mother had been friends with Tom's father, she had attended his funeral the week just gone, bringing James with her as moral support for Tom as he was closer to his age than any of his father's friends or colleagues. For someone who had just lost his dad, James thought he had it together, surprisingly so. They had actually gotten along rather well, only really knowing each other from passing in the hallways at Hogwarts before then. As they'd gotten on so terrifically, Tom had offered the use of his fireplace and the connection to the Ministry floo network to James for this day. He had said it was no big deal and had even invited him, and his friends, to have a meal at the Leaky Cauldron on the house. After they had all handed in their applications, they were going to do that.

Right now though, they all stood at the large fireplace in a little group. Sirius grabbed the small box of floo powder that Tom had left on the mantelpiece for them and offered it to James.

'Age before beauty.' he smirked.

James didn't look too amused. 'You're older than me.' he said.

Sirius' face fell and he lowered the box of floo powder ever so slightly. 'What's your point?' he asked rhetorically.

'Nothing, nothing.' James said, the hints of his own cheeky smile starting to form on his face. 'Don't worry about it.' he went on, 'I wouldn't want to upset you. Especially as we know how emotional you can get.'

Peter tittered and Remus chuckled, as did Lily before she pointed out to Sirius, 'And you have to live with them.'

'Don't remind me.' Sirius sighed.

'Yeah don't remind him.' Remus said, stepping forwards and taking a handful of floo powder, (it was obvious no one else was going to), 'I haven't got any tissues on me at the minute.'

* * *

All five of them had now handed in their application to the Ministry of Magic for the auror training programme. They had waited in an abnormally long queue to do so for an hour and a half. Peter had seemed a little confused as to why Lily was handing one in as well but hadn't admitted that he was just scared of more competition for a place as there was only a limited number available. Remus had just sort of thrown it at the man behind the desk who was in charge of collecting them when they finally got there, having no confidence that he would even get into the programme. Really he had no idea why he was applying. He had even less chance than Peter and he was sure to have gained better grades than him _and_ in all the required subjects. Sirius had been cheeky, as per usual, even after all that waiting, and had asked the man where the pile was for exceptional candidates. James had said he would be needing directions to that pile too. Then they left and apparated to a little alley behind the entrance to the wizarding hospital.

They were now at St. Mungo's, handing in Lily's second application; this time for the healing programme. The hospital was buzzing with patients which, technically wasn't surprising, but James had never really seen the place quite so full. They couldn't find any available chairs in the ground floor waiting area, all being taken up by people with the same shining grey wounds, so they just hung out near a large green and orange plant in the corner. They were gonna wait there when Lily went to hand in her application. She needed a bit of a shove to go do so though.

'Do you want me to hand it in for you?' James asked her, knowing she wanted to do it herself but asking her nonetheless in an attempt to actually get her to go. He could see his friends, well, Sirius, was getting a little impatient. But then again, maybe he just wanted the whole day to be over because Remus and James hadn't stopped making fun of him since Diagon Alley. That was two hours and a very long wait in a queue ago.

'No, I can do it.' Lily said in a wishy washy voice, bringing her application into her chest. She glanced over at the small desk near reception which had a very stout looking woman sitting behind and a large sign hanging in mid-air above it that said 'Applications Here'. There was an arrow hanging down from it pointing to a very ominous looking tray of paper. A few people were queued up in front of the desk but nowhere near as many as there were for the auror programme. It meant less competition for a place but it also meant that it would only take about five minutes for Lily to reach that desk. She was bricking it.

'Okay.' she said with a large exhale of breath, her eyes widening slightly at nothing, 'I'm going.'

'You're still stood here.' James said.

'Well it's the hardest thing I've had to do in my life so far!' Lily retorted through gritted teeth which caused James to raise his hands in defence.

'Not really.' Sirius sighed impatiently, looking at his finger nails as if they were the most interesting thing in the world, 'Remember when you had to choose between our Jimmy-boy and-'

'_Since _Hogwarts.' Lily corrected then. She didn't really want to be reminded that she was forced to choose between James and her then best friend, Hestia Jones. It still hurt her that she had to make that choice.

'I was just pointing out that-'

'Don't think I won't curse you.' Lily interrupted, cutting Sirius off in what was sure to be another remark about the ultimatum she had been given. She felt the slight tension that her words had made though so she lightened the situation by giving him a wicked grin and saying, 'I still owe you one for calling me Lilykins earlier.'

'Ah don't curse him Lily.' Remus said with a grimace and a shake of his head, 'I can't be dealing with the water works.'

That was all that was needed to diffuse the situation and to get Lily in gear to go and hand in her healer application. She left the boys by the plant and headed off to the desk on the other side of the hospital floor and the now, non-existent queue.

When she was out of ear shot, James turned to Sirius. 'Please don't bring that up with her mate?' he asked simply.

Sirius took a deep breath, in and out and agreed, apologising to his best friend but also saying with that insinuating tone of his, 'bet you're glad she chose you though Prongs, hey?'. His words, mostly James' nickname, caught the attention of a witch behind them.

'James.' came the woman's voice. It was older.

James turned around to look at the witch behind of him. She was short, (well to him), and a bit plump with the same colour eyes that he had. It was his mother. 'Mum.' he said, stealing a quick and almost unnoticeable glance to the back of Lily's head across the way, 'What are you doing here.'

'James I work here.' his mother replied. She then turned to the boys behind him. 'Hello boys.'

'Hello Mrs Potter.' Remus and Peter greeted politely whilst Sirius threw out his arms in greeting and said, 'Janey!'

'Hello Sirius.' Jane Potter said with a fond smile and shake of her head. She turned to Peter. 'How's your mum Peter?' she asked him, checking on how Mrs Pettigrew was doing a year and a half or so after she had been attacked, brutally, by some death eaters up where she lived.

'Fine thank you.' Peter squeaked. He always got a little bit nervous talking to Jane Potter, probably worried she was going to tell him off or tell him that she didn't see why her son was friends with such a weak little thing as him. Of course, that was all just in his head. Jane liked Peter.

'And Remus dear, how are you settling in to the house?' Jane asked Remus having not had time over the past couple of days to make sure he was finding everything all right. When James had asked, well, told her that Remus was going to be moving in with them, Jane couldn't help but be happy at someone else enjoying the place. Plus it was just another person that meant she wouldn't be alone in that gigantic mansion all by herself. She was pleased to have the boys back, even though she was sure they would drive her nuts in a matter of weeks.

'Very well thank you Mrs-'

'Weren't you working on fourth today mum?' James asked, glancing over at Lily again and shoving his hands in his pockets.

'I was supposed to be but my schedule was shifted around.' Jane sighed, 'There's just far too many intake for the healers to handle down here. We need all hands on deck.'

'Has something happened?' Remus asked concerned. He knew attacks were getting more frequent nowadays but, as far as he knew, Voldemort and his forces were just a threat at the minute; they hadn't taken the Ministry down yet. Until that happened, Voldemort stayed out of power and committing crimes.

'No but we've been put on alert for more to come in with every witch and wizard thinking that anytime they hurt themselves it's thanks to the work of dark magic.' Jane said, 'It's ridiculous! I had a grown man come in yesterday saying that his frying pan started to beat him. It was the work of you-know-who to him but it was only his wife after she found him in bed with another woman.'

'Wow.' Remus said, 'Talk of drama.'

'Yes, well…everything's dark magic these days.' Jane said, 'It shouldn't affect you boys though. Unless you read a newspaper, listen to the radio or you're actually there when death eaters arrive then you can just block out this war. Pretend it's not happening.'

'There are loads more better things you can pretend about though!' Sirius said mischievously.

Jane gave him a reprimanding look, (which did nothing), before she turned to a young healer who had just run up to her side with a small clipboard in hand and asked her a question.

James looked over to Lily again. She was at the desk now. He seemed more nervous about this than she did but no one really knew why.

'Loads more better things?' Remus asked Sirius, commenting on his grammatical error. Sirius just grinned at him and nodded slowly, that mischievous look still in his eye. He didn't get the correction of his grammar. Instead he thought Remus was wondering what these 'loads more better things' were.

'Well then dear,' Jane said turning back to James, 'I should probably get back to work. Was there something you wanted?'

'What?' James questioned, a little taken aback before remembering that he hadn't told his mother he would be coming to the hospital today. He shook his head. 'Nope. I'm good.' he said, grinning at her in hopes she wouldn't ask anything else. He was wrong.

Jane frowned suspiciously. 'Was there a reason you came to St. Mungo's today then?' she asked.

Lily took this moment, before James could answer his mother, to come galloping over to him, grab his arm with both of hers and say 'Jesus Christ that was scary!'

James didn't look at Lily. For a moment he didn't look at his mum either. He looked at the ground for a few seconds before he lifted his gaze and met his mother's curious eyes.

Lily realised something was up but she had no idea what. She looked to her left, just behind James, to Remus who subtly pointed his finger forwards to Jane Potter who was now raising her eyebrows in wonderment. She was looking between James and Lily and Lily felt the back of her neck burn a little.

'Err…hi?' she said looking to Jane Potter than back to Remus with a small shrug of her shoulders, unsure what to do and unsure of who this was. Remus' lips disappeared and he widened his eyes once, nodding his head forwards in a motion that Lily should turn back to Jane Potter.

Jane looked at her son. 'James?' she said, waiting for an introduction.

James sighed and lifted his eye line to the ceiling above him. 'This is Lily.' he said to his mum, 'My girlfriend. Lily,' he said to her, 'this is my Mum.'

Lily's eyes widened. She wasn't expecting this. She had come out today, nerve wracked to the point of exploding about handing in her applications and seeing James and the boys again but really, she should have been nervous about this. James' mum was the only family he had left. Meeting her was huge. She let go of his arm like it was a hot potato and extended her hand out to Jane Potter for a polite handshake. 'Hi I'm Lily.' she said, 'Evans.' she added as an afterthought.

'Hello.' Jane replied, taking Lily's hand and shaking it courteously. She then turned to James. 'Girlfriend?' she asked.

Her question, this one word, clued the others and marauders into why James was acting a little weird at the minute. It explained why he wasn't smiling and why he would now look neither his mother or Lily in the eye. He hadn't told Mrs Potter anything about Lily. She hadn't known her son had a girlfriend. Until just now.

'Yeah.' James said to the ground in a slightly breathless voice.

Remus, Sirius and Peter all shared awkward looks, trying their hardest not to make any remarks to make this situation any more uncomfortable than it already was.

'You never mentioned you had a girlfriend James.' Jane said to her son, that happy tone in her voice – the one mothers get when they learn their son is seeing someone new. The tone that said, 'ah yes, a way to embarrass my boy'. She was not particularly grasping the entire awkwardness of the situation just yet. 'How long has this been going on then?' she asked curiously.

'Almost a year.' Lily replied.

She got it now. Jane looked just as awkward as the boys behind James. The girl she had just met, had just been introduced to as the girl who was seeing her son, did not look too impressed that he hadn't told his own mother about her. She was looking up at James with a disapproving look whilst he looked away and admired that green and orange plant in the corner. Suddenly it had become rather fascinating to him.

'A year? Oh... Don't worry dear.' Jane said to Lily, 'He hardly tells me anything.'

Lily looked at Jane and gave a small smile, thanking her for the attempt to excuse James from the state of ignorance that he had left his own mother in about his relationship status.

'You know, - Lily, is it?' she said to her, making sure she had her name right. When Lily nodded she carried on. 'You're more than welcome to join us for dinner tonight if you'd like?'

'We're having dinner at the Leaky Cauldron.' James said, 'Tom invited us all.'

'Oh…well,' Jane said, 'Perhaps another time.'

'That would be lovely.' Lily smiled gratefully.

'Good.' Jane said as she looked at her watch, 'Now I really must get back to work. It was nice to meet you Lily.'

'You too.' Lily replied.

'See you later boys.' Jane said to James, Remus and Sirius and adding an extra, 'Goodbye Peter dear.'

The boys smiled and waved Jane Potter away and James said, 'Bye mum.' as she turned around and melted into the scene of the hospital.

When she was out of reach and the awkward silence reached its peak, Sirius said, 'Well that was awkward!' in a happy voice in an attempt to diffuse the tension. Lily snapped a glare at him and he dropped his smile.

'How mad are you?' James asked Lily, looking at her through the corners of his eyes, too nervous to look at her directly. He scratched his chin.

'That you're ashamed of me?' Lily said thoughtfully, 'Not at all.' she finished in a sarcastic voice with a quick forced smile before her face dropped into another glare at him and walking away towards the exit.

'Ah Lily…' James sighed, walking after her, trying to catch up to her.

Remus, Sirius and Peter stood still. They were giving James and Lily a good head start.

'Bet you two galleons they fight.' Sirius said to Remus.

Remus looked at Sirius and shook his head. 'I'm not betting with you.' he said.

'Why not?' Sirius questioned with a slight whine in his voice.

Remus shrugged and started to walk after James and Lily. 'You might cry when you lose.' he said over his shoulder.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Hope it hasn't dissapointed as a starter of this story :)**

**The next update will be on the 10th of May (I have two assessments on the 2nd and 9th so it should give me some time to write a nice chunk)**

**Galindaba**


	4. Chapter 3

**Hey guys! :) Just the one chapter for today I'm afraid but this is the introduction of part of the death eater/order plot. That comes out in threads in different chapters but its all information based so I hope its not dull :/ I've done it this way to keep Severus in the story cause...yeah. He's a good character. :)**

**So here we go, Chapter Three :)**

* * *

**Chapter Three**

'My Lord, the last was called almost four and a half years ago.' a death eater informed Voldemort who was sat up at the end of the table.

There weren't many death eaters surrounding him. To a hopeful spectator, this could look like he was losing power, that his followers weren't as supportive of him as they had once been and had left to find greener pastures. They would be wrong. Voldemort had the biggest following now since he had begun to accumulate power, since he had revealed to the world his thirst for a pure-blood society and a ruling of the muggle world. People were as frightened of him now as they had always been and were becoming more scared by the day, worrying whether they would be the next to face his wrath. Those who had dared speak his name before were steadily starting to refer to him as only He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. He even now had an opposition. Of course he didn't believe they were a threat to him seeing as there weren't many people who would want to openly defy him these days in the way that Dumbledore's little group did, but it did mean that he was dangerous enough to warrant such a rivalry.

The door to the little-on-the-outside-huge-on-the-inside wooden shack where Voldemort held his death eater meetings swung open. In walked Severus Snape, now eighteen and newly graduated from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

'My Lord.' he greeted Voldemort after he closed the door behind him. He bowed his head in a solitary motion and was still where he stood, waiting to be invited to the table by Voldemort.

Severus Snape was a lanky lad with a slight hunch to his shoulders which diminished his height by about an inch. He had a hooked nose which was shining thanks to his poor oily complexion. He had a large spot on his right cheek which was filled with puss and ready to pop. A strand of his greasy hair clung to it, the rest falling in ragged curtains around his face, stopping at his shoulders. He wore black robes, sleeves on them singed as if they had been in contact with very hot flames. His appearance wasn't what you could call pleasing to the eye. Not that he cared. His eyes told you all you needed to know. They were blank, unfeeling and a steely grey. Severus Snape was dead inside.

You see, even though Severus had always wanted to practice the dark arts, creating his own spells out of his enthusiasm for it, he hadn't quite imagined his life this way. He hadn't though that his entire being would be labelled 'death eater'. He had become what he wanted and he was serving Voldemort as he had desired to ever since his name had started to mill around Hogwarts. He had however, lost something much more important in the process; Lily Evans. The girl he loved who was in a relationship with the boy he despised. And now, even though she would never know it, he was doing all he could to keep her safe.

He suggested attacks that were far away from Lily's neighbourhood. He created ways to divert the attention away from the wizarding hospital St. Mungo's for he knew Lily had applied for the training programme that was run there. He even tried to put the idea of attacking the auror department to the bottom of the list for, even though he would love to see James Potter get attacked by death eaters, he knew Lily would rush to his aide if she caught a whiff of what was happening. That would put her in harm's way and Severus didn't want that.

The hardest thing Severus was having to do though was pretend that he felt nothing for the girl. He had to hide the love he had for his childhood friend because she was a mudblood; unworthy of being a witch. And if Voldemort knew about her specifically, he would target her and then kill Severus for how he felt about her. So Severus forced himself to become cold and detached, even more so than he had been before, and had practiced the skill of Occlumency so that he would be able to shield his thoughts from The Dark Lord. So far, he had been successful, and the only give away that he was doing anything of the kind, was the dead look in his eyes.

'Ah, Severus.' Voldemort said, very almost smiling at the boy.

Severus Snape reminded him a lot of himself at that age. Ashamed of his blood status, being only half-blood. Humiliated that he had nothing in life; no money, no possessions and no home. And absolutely disgusted at his mother and her low standards in race, marrying a filthy muggle and subjecting her beautifully pure blood to such degradation. Severus was a younger version of Voldemort, only less powerful and completely unable to reach his skill level. He would never amount to anything if he wasn't under Voldemort's leadership and even then he would never become more than a slave. But Voldemort took pity on him due to their similarities. He would be a trusted servant to him. Nothing more.

'Do sit down Severus.' Voldemort said, gesturing to an empty seat on his right, only two places away from himself. It was reserved for his most loyal followers. He would throw mercifulness on the boy. He could sit there today. But only today. For the time being anyway.

'Thank you, My Lord.' Severus said, bowing his head humbly once more.

He made his way down the outside of the long table and took his place next to a slightly older death eater who he believed was named Macnair. He was an employee of the Ministry and Magic in the department for the Control and Regulation of Magical Creatures. He had fine robes and short slicked back black hair. Next to Macnair, (and to the left of Voldemort himself), was Rodolphus Lestrange. All Severus knew about him though was that due to long standing tradition, Bellatrix Black would marry him in a matter of months, something she was not too happy about. He was a few years older than her, taller than average wizard with a lanky frame. Black curly hair that was already balding in places despite his young age and deep green brown eyes. He could be Bellatrix brother in Severus' opinion. He looked at the death eaters opposite him. There were four of them.

Furthest away from Voldemort was Bellatrix Black, the girl whom Rodolphus was now betrothed too. She had mad curly black hair which was growing so long Severus thought it wouldn't be long until she was sitting on it. Her eyebrows were also crazy but under those were adoring eyes which focused solely on Voldemort. Next to her, opposite Severus, was an older death eater who had been with Voldemort from his school days. His name was Mulciber and he also happened to be the father of one of Severus old class mates and now death eater. Next to him was the brother to Rodolphus Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange. Their whole family were death eaters, the boys' father having attended Hogwarts with Voldemort back when he was still Tom Riddle. They all looked rather similar too with the same hair and eyes.

The death eater privileged enough to be sat nearest to Voldemort, was Lucius Malfoy, a dedicated follower who, by happy coincidence was also highly trusted in the Ministry of magic thanks to his family's long revered standing in the community. He was an invaluable servant to Voldemort and was the one who bewitched the Ministers assistant and forced him to look in a private file which he should never have had access too. It was thanks to him that Voldemort was able to form a plan that would cause everything to fall into disarray at just the right moment for him to take over the wizarding world _and _the muggle world once and for all. He was what some might consider, Voldemorts right hand man. And as one of the most loyal and dedicated followers, his whole life revolved around his being a death eater. He had a wife, Narcissa Malfoy, sister to Bellatrix Black, but she came second in his life and he made sure she knew it. There was nothing at home, at the moment, to make him change his mind about that. He was in this room at all times looking rather smug to be sat where he was. He had long bleach blond hair and a sharp nose, his pale complexion accentuating his matt grey eyes. He looked the part as well as played it. At the minute, he was explaining to Voldemort what he could remember about the file he had had the Minister of Magic's assistant snoop in.

'As I was saying My Lord,' he said, a gravely croak in his voice, 'the last was called almost four and a half years ago. If another is called it is scheduled for next spring.'

'What do you mean by if?' Voldemort queried, not happy at the impreciseness of Lucius' statement.

'There is a slight possibility that the Minister of Magic has given instructions that it not go ahead, no matter what the cost.' Lucius explained, not fazed by the slight irritation in his masters voice at his previous words, 'It would seem that the Minister is worried that you might use the opportunity and disarray to create havoc in both worlds.'

'They'd be right about that then!' Mulciber barked out in a laugh, being one of the only followers of Voldemorts that was able to get away with it.

The few death eaters present at the meeting tittered along to the joke before falling silent at the standard three second mark.

Voldemort nodded his head slowly in thought. 'Am I right in thinking the Minister will have gone to certain measures to ensure a disruption is unlikely in that world?' he asked Lucius.

'Yes, My Lord.' Lucius replied, bowing his head in reverence.

'Well,' Voldemort said, placing his fingertips together, 'That simply won't do. I need someone I can control in that position. If there are measure in place to ensure that that doesn't happen then we need to break them. We need to expose what the Minister of Magic has done to keep things the way they are in the muggle world.' he went on, spitting the word muggle out as if it was filthy. 'Was there anything in that file which provided proof to the Minister of Magic's dishonest actions.'

'Perhaps, My Lord.' Lucius said, 'I can't be certain until I find the boy again though. As a precaution, they have wiped his memory. I have been unable to get anything of use out of him.'

'Try harder Lucius.' Voldemort instructed in such a way it let his followers know that there would be consequences if the information he wanted wasn't found.

'There was one other piece of information in that folder, My Lord.' Lucius said, stepping cautiously after Voldemorts last words.

'And that was?' Voldemort asked.

'Just one word, My Lord.' Lucius answered, 'Marsket. I believe it's a name.'

Voldemort gave a slow nod before turning to Severus who had been listening in anticipation of being called upon. His time came now.

'Severus.' Voldemort said, 'Find out who Marsket is. Have your friend Wilkes help you with this.' He had used the word friend loosely for he didn't believe in such things. It was a sign of weakness to have to rely on someone's friendship.

Severus nodded. 'Of course, My Lord.'

* * *

On Friday afternoon, James sat in the kitchen of the Potter mansion with Remus. He was playing with the snitch he stole out of the Quidditch store cupboard at Hogwarts in his last year, letting it fly away a little bit before catching it and releasing it again. It wasn't particularly moving very well because the previous week, he and Sirius had tried to see how far they could hit it with Sirius' old beaters bat. They had damaged part of its wings so it was flying like a very slow moth; awkward and broken. Still, James played with it. Mostly because it was the only snitch out of the seven they had hit, (one stolen for each year at Hogwarts), that they could find in the acres upon acres of Potter land.

James glanced over to Remus who was pouring over the Daily Prophet which he had laid flat on the table. He had a quill dipped in red ink hovering over the page. James had no idea what he was doing. It could hardly be the cross word because, as a rule in the house, the crossword belonged to his mum. He was sure he had told Remus this. Perhaps not though. James couldn't remember telling Remus much about living in the Potter mansion, only that the eighth step on the main stair case was a sinking step and that the third horse along in the stables in the grounds bit you if you turned your back on it. He decided to check.

'You're not doing the crossword are you?' he asked Remus in what should have been an offhand quiery.

'No.' Remus said, not looking up from the paper. He was unintentionally scowling at it as he read. 'Why? Did you want it?'

'No, no.' James dismissed, 'Crossword belongs to me mum in this place.' he went on, catching the snitch and pointing it over to Remus saying, 'I told you that right?'

'Dunno.' Remus replied, dipping his quill into the inkpot and circling something in the paper before scribbling something small and illegible next to it. 'You might have done. Only rule I remember is don't blow up the house.'

'Yeah that's the main one.' James nodded. You blow up a toilet and an out-house and almost burn the kitchen down one time a piece and all of a sudden your mum thinks you're going to destroy the place if you don't have a rule that tells you not too. The out-house wasn't even his fault. It was Sirius' and his motorbike, which he was outside working on at the minute. But James had gotten the blame for that.

'It's worrying when you have to be warned against it though.' Remus exasperated, still looking down at the paper, He drew a large X in the corner. James had to wonder what it was all for.

'What you doing anyway?' he asked him, beginning to play with his snitch again.

'Looking for a job.' Remus muttered, putting another cross in the top right corner of the paper.

'What?' James asked, astonished. He was caught off guard and allowed the snitch to hoveringly make its way up to the ceiling and start making circles around the chandelier that hung over the long kitchen table. 'Why you looking for a job? We applied for that auror programme.' he stated, leaning forwards onto the glossy oak table.

Remus finally looked up from his paper. 'Come on,' he said in a 'let's be realistic' tone of voice, 'We both know I'm not getting in to that.'

'Who says?' James questioned, shocked at his friends lack of confidence. He was the one who had studied for the N.E.W.T's. He was the one who was bound to get the best grades. Really the Ministry of Magic would be crazy to refuse him. But the Ministry was just that; Crazy.

'Says everyone.' Remus sighed, looking back down to the paper. He turned over the page to look at the next and had his quill at the ready. 'I had to put on my application what I am in the 'On-going Illnesses or Afflictions' section. I'm not getting into any auror training programme James.'

James grimaced. What Remus had said was true. There was a very high possibility that Remus wouldn't be accepted although the way Remus was acting, he had already decided it was a forgone conclusion. Of course the wizarding world had horrible prejudices against people with Remus' condition, what had happened with Hestia Jones in their final year of Hogwarts alone proved that. Did it really mean that Remus should just give up on what he really wanted to do though? It wasn't fair. But James knew that trying to convince Remus to try and have a little faith that he wouldn't be judged wouldn't work. It was all he knew so he wouldn't even attempt to instill hope in him. Instead he just asked him other questions, continuing with a different but similar path of conversation.

'Does that really mean you need a job though?' James asked, standing up and walking over to the long larder cupboard behind the kitchen island, which Remus had his back to, so he could get a drink. He got out a large jug of pumpkin juice and two glasses and set them out on the island to poor himself and Remus a drink.

'I need money James.' Remus sighed, circling something else in the paper. James could only assume they were advertisements for available jobs. It was the topic of conversation after all.

'Why?' James said to Remus'. He poured the orange liquid into two equal glasses. Knowing they'd want more, he left the jug on the side and went to take the glass of juice to Remus and sit down with his own.

'I don't know.' Remus began sarcastically, 'How about for clothes, food, any books I might want to get – thank you –' (he took the glass of juice from James) 'or even just the paper!' he ended, holding up the Daily Prophet momentarily to show James what he meant by paper, even though it was pretty obvious. He then put it down and continued with his job search.

'Pfft.' James snorted in derision, 'Why'd you need a job for all that stuff? I got you covered. No worries.'

Remus paused and his lips disappeared as he took a deep breath. He breathed a heavy sigh and looked up at his friend who was nonchalantly drinking his own Pumpkin juice. It was so easy for him. Remus didn't begrudge him anything he had. James wasn't the type of person to flaunt his wealth, take it for granted or make you feel beneath him if you didn't have as much. Money was just something James had always had but it wasn't all he was about. In fact, if he wasn't so willing to give it all away to every Tom, Dick or Sally that needed it far more than he did, you wouldn't even know he came from money from his attitude, (you could tell by his possessions such as clothes). It was rather insignificant in his life as he believed he had more important things to focus his attention on; his friends, his family, his girlfriend, Quidditch, playing practical jokes and basically just getting into as much trouble as he possibly could. Remus didn't envy his friend his money because what he said was important, Remus also had, (minus the girlfriend). Still, it didn't mean they didn't need money. In an economy driven world, everyone needed a bit to get by.

Whilst his friends were at his house, or even when they weren't, James was more than happy to provide anything they needed and get them anything they wanted. He had bought Remus a new jacket the week before because his had been mysteriously fed to the goats that inhabited a patch of land on the Potter property next to the stables. But James was one of those people that could do things like that, buy his friends things, in such away you didn't feel like he was showing off with what he could do. He was very generous with his money and property and was fully supporting Remus, expecting nothing in return. Only Remus didn't want it to be that way. He didn't want to be dependent on James, even though James didn't mind a bit. He wanted to be more like Sirius who, even though he was living under the Potter's roof, he did have his own money. Granted Sirius' money came from a large inheritance but still, he wasn't completely reliant on the Potters for the basics in life like food and clothes. Remus would be if he didn't do something about it because, essentially, he had nothing. His family had always been poor and they couldn't afford to leave an inheritance for him. His parents couldn't even help at this point in his life. That was why he was looking for a job.

'That's not the point.' Remus said, avoiding James' eyes now that he had put down his glass and was staring at Remus, listening intently.

'Then what is the point?' James wondered.

'I don't want to be someone who scrounges off of their friends cause he can't afford to keep himself.' Remus said, 'I don't want to be reduced to being the equivalent of someone's pet.'

'Please!' James laughed, brushing this off, 'If anyone's gonna equal a pet in this place, it's gonna be Sirius. He's already a mutt!'

'I mean it.' Remus said, not laughing along with James' joke, 'I don't want to be a burden.' He returned to his paper and started to mark available jobs again, crossing out the ones that he definitely wouldn't be hired for. He could possibly be hired to harvest Snargaluff pods for the shop in Diagon Alley that sold potion ingredients but there was no way he would be given a job in Zonko's Joke Shop in Hogsmeade. Werewolves just weren't funny.

James looked away and scratched his chin at the slightly uncomfortable air that the room had taken. He glanced up to the ceiling where his broken winged snitch was crawling through the air, dropping down every few inches a little bit as if it was taking a lot of effort to stay at the height it was. He looked back at Remus who sighed and marked another cross over a job in the paper. James paused.

'You know you're not a burden right?' he said after a moment.

Remus looked up again but only for a moment. 'Aren't I?'

'Nope.' James said before going into a very Sirius-esque dramatic routine. He started sniffing and faking sobs whilst putting his hand to his heart and looking up to the ceiling. 'And you…' he began, a forced crack in his voice, 'Thinking that you are…well…it hurts me Moony. It's hurts me more than milking hurts cows.'

'Milking hurts cows?' Remus asked sceptically, raising an eyebrow at James now he was looking straight at him.

James dropped character. 'Just go with it.' he said, resuming his sniffing, sobs, hand on heart, eyes to the ceiling position afterwards. 'To think that you think I help you for any reason other than you're just the prettiest damn wolf I've ever see…well…perhaps it's time we see other people!'

Remus looked at James for a second, James lowering his eye level to discreetly see what Remus' reaction was. He shook his head and returned to the paper. 'You know, you could give Sirius a run for his money on the dramatics.' he commented offhandedly, smirking slightly as he did so.

'Thanks!' James smiled, glad he had finally broken the slight tension he had felt between the pair of them. He waited for a couple of seconds before returning to the topic that they had originally been discussing, hoping that it was very almost exhausted now but still needing to ensure Remus knew that it wasn't a problem that he was being supported by him. He wanted him to know that he didn't think Remus was scrounging off him because he wasn't. Not at all. He started off with a casual question though.

'So you really think you're not gonna get into the auror programme?' James asked carefully.

'Nope.' Remus replied, popping the P.

James steeled himself and took a deep breath. 'You don't need to get a job if you don't though. It's not needed.'

'James, if not for the money, than for my own piece of mind I will have to.' Remus said honestly, nodding to James. He didn't think it was worth talking about the money issue any more. It would only end up going round in circles. James would tell him it was fine and not to worry about it and he would tell him he didn't want to be a nuisance who asked for a few galleons so he could go buy some new ink or whatever. They would both just continue to make their point, both understanding the other side but not ever giving into it completely. James wouldn't stop offering to help just as Remus wouldn't give in and just live off of James and his mother. It just wasn't what they would do.

'Being in this place alone every day with nothing to keep myself busy,' Remus continued, 'I'd go stir crazy!'

'What do you mean nothing to do?' James grinned, 'You'd prepare my meals me for when I got home. Wash my clothes. Do the dishes. I think you'd make a good little house wife!' he joked.

'I want a divorce.' Remus deadpanned, turning back to his paper.

'I'll get you an apron and everything!' James laughed,

'I feel bad for Lily.' Remus muttered to which James just laughed harder.

Whilst he was laughing Jane Potter entered the room in her healers robes, pinning on the crest of St. Mungo's to the breast panel. She had only been home for an hour during which time she had had something to eat and then taken a bath before responding to the letters that she had received that morning. She had only returned for her lunch break, taking it unpaid so she could make a fleeting visit to her son. She had to go back now. She wouldn't finish until midnight. The long days were taking their toll on her. She was tired and ached and looked a bit pale but still, she powered through.

'What's so funny dear?' she asked James who was still laughing loudly.

'James is gay.' Remus smirked, cutting James' laughter off immediately. He was giving him a scowling look now. Remus shrugged. 'What? You practically just proposed to me.' he pointed out.

'Hey I have a girlfriend.' James said, holding his hands up before regaining his mischievous smirk as he said, 'Sirius is available though. And I'm pretty sure he's in to you.'

'Well why wouldn't he be?' Remus said, standing up and grabbing his own and James' now empty glasses and going around to the kitchen island to refill them with juice, 'I'm a prize.'

James chuckled at Remus' words and would have answered him back with some other witty remark but was spoken to by his mother instead.

'About that girlfriend of yours.' she said, now pulling down the sleeves of her work robes. They'd been washed one too many times and were starting to shrink. 'Have you invited her to dinner tomorrow yet?' she asked him.

'You know,' James began thoughtfully, shaking his finger, 'I thought there was something I was supposed to do.'

'James!' Jane Potter reprimanded, stopping tugging at her sleeves to scold her son, 'It's bad enough you hide that lovely girl away for a whole year-'

'It's not been a year mum!' James said with a roll of his eyes, lounging back in his chair and putting his feet up on the kitchen table. His socks were mismatched and the left one had a hole in the toe.

'She said you had been together for a year.' Jane said first before saying, 'You need to throw those socks out.'

'Firstly, I love these socks and secondly…' he started, trying to think of something to say about the length of his relationship with Lily so far.

'I'm waiting.' Jane said, folding her arms and raising her eyebrows in that motherly way at James.

James could still think of nothing good. 'She…lies.' he said eventually, nodding his head afterwards as if to solidify his response.

Remus snorted from behind the island but, upon receiving a look from James, picked up the now half empty jug of juice and put it back into the larder cupboard.

'Ok, but it's not been a year.' he corrected himself, 'More like seven months.'

Remus coughed. 'Eleven.'

James turned his head sharply towards Remus who was now facing him and his mother, leaning on the island and watching their exchange. 'Got a cough there have you mate?' he asked rhetorically.

Remus just picked up his glass of pumpkin juice, pointed to it, and then proceeded to drink it.

'You've been with her for eleven months?' Jane asked. She hadn't really been able to find out a lot about her sons girlfriend thanks to her hectic schedule at work at the minute. She had been asked to advise on applications for the healer training programme. Anything she had been able to find out about the girl James was dating was what she had quickly glanced at on the application she had handed into St Mungo's. She knew her name, birthday and what grades she was expected. She knew what Professor McGonagall thought of her, reading it in the letter of recommendation that had been written for her and she knew she possessed great dedication. She knew nothing personal however. She expected to learn this at the meal she had wanted James to invite her too but he wasn't very forthcoming with the offer.

'Technically…' James said, weighing up his options of saying yes or no via visible representation of his hands moving up and down, '…Yes.' He dropped is hands, leaning one on the table and the other ruffling the back of his hair up. 'That doesn't mean it's serious though.'

'Loves her.' Remus coughed again, raising a fist to his mouth to cover it and looking down at the worktop on the island.

'Do you need some cough medicine?' James asked him succinctly.

'Nope. Seems to be clearing up.' he replied with a smile.

'Oh James!' Jane cooed to her son, 'Did you tell her you loved her?'

'No.' James replied straight away as if it was reflex.

'Liar.' Remus coughed again.

James widened his eyes and turned back to face Remus who was smirking over the top of the fist that was covering his mouth. 'Thought it was clearing up?' James asked through gritted teeth.

'I was wrong.' Remus shrugged, giving a couple more fake coughs for good measure.

'I will kill you.' James said with narrowed eyes.

'James!' Jane told him off, giving him a stern look until he turned to Remus and apologised for threatening to kill him.

'That's fine.' Remus said, picking up the glass of juice that was meant to be for James, deciding to take it to Sirius now instead. 'Weddings off though.' he said over his shoulder as he exited via the French doors which led out onto a portion of the Potters land.

James shook his head as the doors closed before looking back to his mother. After glancing at her he looked down at the hand he had used to mess up his hair and studied his nail beds.

Jane gave a sigh and looked at her watch. She had just a few minutes before her lunch hour was up and she had to leave to get back to the hospital. She walked over to James and pulled out the chair that was under the bit of table he had his feet up on.

'Feet off the table please.' she told James, batting his ankles with her hand until he reluctantly did what she said. 'James, do you-'

There was a thud on the table next to them. Simultaneously, mother and son turned their heads to see the snitch that had been doing its best to cling to the ceiling, around the chandelier, had fallen down in the centre of the table. It had made a small indentation but, for now, Jane Potter decided to ignore it. Instead, she turned back to her son.

'James do you love this girl?' she asked him motherly.

James took a deep breath before gaining the courage to look at his mother and say, 'Yes.'

He had no idea why he was so nervous about admitting this. He would tell the world how much he loved Lily Evans. He would climb the tallest tower in Hogwarts and shout it out to the whole country, wanting everyone to know that he was in love with a brilliant, beautiful girl. But, for some reason he couldn't quite figure out, he was a little bit terrified to admit it to his mother. And he had thought telling Sirius, knowing he would be taunted and teased for it, would be the hardest thing he had to deal with it when it concerned this. Obviously he was wrong. His mother was a new level of scary on this topic.

And it wasn't even because she was a daunting woman. She wasn't. She was a little short and plump but what she lacked in height she made up for in talent. She was a lovely, kind-hearted woman who was very accepting of things most pure-blood wizards, (or just Remus in general when it came to things like Remus' furry little problem), would just brush away. But for some reason, James hadn't actually told her anything about Lily. It had actually almost caused a fight between himself and Lily when she, by a chance encounter at St. Mungo's, had realised this.

They didn't spat in front of their friends, (much to Sirius' disappointment who had tried to place a bet with Remus that they would), but they had spoken rather heatedly on their way to the Leaky Cauldron where the group was treated to a lovely meal by Tom the new landlord. Lily had been upset that James had failed to mention her existence to his mother. After soothing her worries that he had done it out of shame over her or putting to rest her worries about his mother perhaps being prejudice to her blood status, (something Jane Potter wasn't), he had managed to convince her that he had meant nothing by it. He hadn't hidden her and the only reason his mother didn't know about her was because he hadn't seen her properly since Christmas, thanks to her work and his being at Hogwarts or helping Remus move. He hadn't told her at Christmas because it was the anniversary of his dads death and he hadn't mentioned it in a letter because he had wanted to tell her face to face, something he wasn't actually sure was completely true but he said it anyway. Lily had nodded in acceptance to it but whether it was because she believed him or she just didn't want to fight, he didn't know. They let it go after that though. Now all he had to deal with was his mother's queries about it all.

His mum had lain out a fabulous meal the day after she had found out about Lily and had explained to Sirius and Remus that she just wanted a meal with her son. She gave them some money to go out for dinner wherever they wanted and they left her alone with James, (who had tried to sneak out with his friends before she caught him and forced him to sit at the table). He had then pretended to be the most casual person in the world ever, asking her how work was going, hoping to avoid the interrogation that had followed. It wasn't that bad really but that was probably due to the fact that an owl arrived saying she was urgently needed at St. Mungo's she had to leave just minutes after they had started to broach the subject of Lily. Before she went though, she had told James to invite his girlfriend to a meal on Saturday as that was her next day off. James had agreed but had no intention of actually doing it for reasons he couldn't explain. When she had left, Sirius and Remus came in from the next room laughing because they had been the ones to send the owl to get James out of the dinner. He had high-fived his friends and they had all gone out for a drink at the Leaky Cauldron, avoiding an angry Jane Potter when she found out it was a hoax. She wasn't impressed.

After that she had insisted harder on James inviting Lily to dinner, knowing that the only way she would find out about the girl was to actually meet her again, and properly this time. James had, again, placated her in saying he would write to her but he never did. If she asked why not he would say she had plans with Alice Prewett this week and he didn't want to disturb her and that was partly true. Lily had planned to stay round Alice's for a couple nights that week, she had told him about it on Tuesday. But James had run out of days to use that excuse. It was now Friday so Lily would be home again by now. And his mother wanted the meal tomorrow. He had to either explain the unexplainable – why he hadn't invited her yet and why he hadn't told his mum about her in the first place – or just bite the bullet, write to her, and hope that she said no.

'If you love her why won't you invite her to dinner?' Jane Potter asked her son gently, 'And why didn't you tell me about her?'

And there they were; the unexplainable questions. James had no idea what the answers were to either of these questions. He shrugged. 'I dunno.' he said, 'I guess it's just not something I wanna talk to my mum about.'

Jane nodded her head. She could understand that. Her brother, James' uncle who was now unfortunately deceased, had kept his first three girlfriends secret from both their parents. Jane had been in charge of covering for him when she was younger. She realised that there were something's teenage boys just didn't like to share with their parents. She assumed that when James was comfortable enough, he would have let her know. He wouldn't have been afraid to face the questions his mum would have about Lily. Or any future girlfriends he may have.

'Make sure you invite her to dinner.' Jane Potter repeated, looking at her watch. She had to go back to work now.

James sighed. 'I will.'

'If you don't I'll write to her myself and ask her.' Jane threatened which James rolled his eyes at and lolled his head back over the back of his chair.

'I'll ask her!' he said.

'Good. I'll see you both tomorrow then.' she said, standing up and giving him a kiss on the cheek before warning him not to let Sirius work on the engine of his bike whilst she was out and disapparating.

When she had gone, James sat still for a couple of minutes. Really he had no choice but to write to Lily now. His mother would do it later for him if he didn't and he knew Lily would be less freaked out if the invitation came in his hand writing. He sighed, picked up the snitch that had landed on the table moment ago and stood up to head to his father's old study to write this damn letter. Besides, who knew? She could have plans on Saturday.

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**Thanks for reading! :) Review if you want to but if you don't I promise I won't be offended. Thank you to my reviewers so far! Courtney, Awesomemeee and Wilma27! Thanks you guys! :)**

**Next update will be on the 16th of May and hopefully that'll be a couple of chapters or so :)**

**Galindaba**


	5. Chapter 4

**Hey people! :)**

**So this is chapter four. I'm giving you chapters four and five today because, well, I've finished them and they must be read! :D However, my next update will actually be in a couple weeks rather that just one and I'm starting my new job next week and I have to go through training and such. I will try, however, to attempt an early update but I thought if I left it at a couple weeks just in case then nobody get annoyed :p**

**Anyway, sorry about that and here is Chapter Four!**

**Enjoy!**

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**Chapter Four**

'So how was it?' Alice Prewett asked her friend, I suppose you could call her her _best_ friend, Lily Evans. They hadn't always been close. Really it was only in the last year or so of Hogwarts that they started to become as close as they were now, and even that wasn't that close. It wasn't 'marauder' close but it did for the pair of them just fine.

Over their seven years at Hogwarts, a lot of things had changed within their friendship group. There were five of them in the dormitory they had been allocated for their time at Hogwarts; Emmeline Vance, Mary McDonald, Hestia Jones, Alice and Lily. In their very first years at Hogwarts they were a loose group, Emmeline being closer to Lily and Alice being closer to the other two girls. But as they grew older, things switched around and, by their sixth year, Mary had found other friends, Lily and Hestia were almost sisters and Alice and Emmeline were inseparable. But then again, sisters fight and fall out and everything is inseparable until it's separated. Everything that they had found in their six years at Hogwarts so far, all their building foundations and friendships started to fall to pieces in their hands.

Emmeline and Alice were the first to go their separate ways. Emmeline was a girl very much into divination and put a lot of stock into predictions and prophecies. She had planned to travel the world researching more into the ancient art of divination and, as far as Alice was aware, she was doing that now. It was Emmeline's blind faith in divination combined with Alice's stubbornness and unwillingness to believe anything she had no solid proof on was what had torn them apart. Alice too had taken divination but had no real belief in it, only having taken it as Emmeline had. So one divination lesson where Emmeline had read Alice's future, telling her that her boyfriend, Frank Longbottom, was cheating on her, sent them into an argument. Alice didn't believe it but Emmeline had insisted it was true. Neither girl would change their mind and Alice had ended up storming out of the lesson and ranting to Lily about it all. Emmeline didn't speak to Alice much after that and Alice, who started hanging around with Lily and Hestia, didn't speak to her either. The only time they really spoke afterwards was when Alice apologised to Emmeline for their fall out. And that wasn't particularly a long conversation as Mary McDonald, who Emmeline had turned to when she and Alice fell out, had already started to drag Emmeline up to the dormitory half way through Alice's apology.

Emmeline had been wrong though. Alice's boyfriend hadn't cheated on her. He wouldn't. He was the one for Alice, she was sure. But Hestia's boyfriend of the time however, had. And if you put it under a microscope, tried to pinpoint the moment things in Lily's and Hestia's relationship started to go sour, then that would be it. Before that had happened, Hestia Jones had been a very happy go lucky girl. She had fairy-tale romantic aspirations and was completely obsessed with nail polish. And even though she was one of the biggest gossips you would ever meet, she could keep the odd secret. Lily would have trusted her with her life. But all good things must come to an end right?

At the time that Hestia's boyfriend had cheated on her, Lily had just developed a liking for James Potter and, until this moment, Hestia had always been trying to help get them together. She had even told James how Lily felt about him when Lily had asked her not to, all in the interest of a future relationship between the pair. But when Hestia's boyfriend, Matthew Davies had cheated on her, he had broken her heart, spirit and any essence of romance that she had in her. She had turned to Lily after this and had told her point blank that it was probably for the best that she and James had never gotten things sorted between them because they were just a disaster waiting to happen. She had told Lily to just give up hope on it because it just wouldn't work out, they head nothing in common, forget it. And when Hestia had told Lily this, Lily had seen her reasons. Lily knew that Hestia was probably right but couldn't get over the way she had fallen for James. So, in their seventh year, when James and Lily did start dating, Lily had done her best to hide it from Hestia, fearing an argument over the fact that she hadn't listened to her advice. As it was, when Hestia did find out, (after unknowingly setting Lily up with someone else), she was fine, happy even. She helped them out in hiding their affair. Things should have been fine after that but they continued to crumble; slowly then all at once.

Hestia had seemed to be returning to herself, even getting another boyfriend named Sean McEvoy who just so happened to be best friends with Joshua Hunt, with whom Hestia had tried to set Lily up with. She had helped give reasons to Joshua for Lily's disinterest in him whilst James and Lily's relationship was still private and had also helped to settle him when he, (and the rest of the school thanks to Severus Snape), had found out they were dating. Hestia had only to step up her commitment of friendship to Lily when her own boyfriend, Sean McEvoy, had overheard them and Alice speaking about a drunken kiss Lily had had with Sirius Black over Christmas when she had gone to stay with James. After Hestia had realised that Sean had told Joshua and the pair of them had spread the news that Lily was a cheater, (which wasn't true if you knew the backstory), she had broken up with him. She said she would never choose her boyfriend over her best friend and she _knew _Lily would have done the same before. But nobody can know everything.

After that, Hestia and Lily had seemed fine, only really having a drama over Lily's birthday party. That had involved Alice and James as well so it wasn't really an argument between them. Lily would have gone along with it – even though she wasn't particularly a party person – if Alice hadn't been a good friend to her and asked her what _her_ opinion was on what Hestia was planning for her party, revealing that Lily wasn't too keen on the theme; a traditional English tea party. Hestia was irritated with that but it didn't make a difference really. She continued with planning the party. And things would have been fine if James hadn't come to speak to her about it all. He had tried to get her to cancel the party because he knew Lily didn't really want it but, as Hestia wouldn't budge, they made a compromise. That was how James had turned the party into a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory theme, spiking the chocolate with a potion that turned anyone who ate it orange with green hair; Oompa-Loompas. To James and Lily, it completed the party based on Lily's favourite book and film but, to Hestia, everything was ruined. She wasn't happy.

Again though, that was only one real drama. They had spent the spring term in harmony otherwise. Hestia and Lily were happy in their friendship group, the one with the marauders and Alice and Frank. They really would have no complaints. Everybody got along, even when Sirius had had a bit of a problem with Lily. Nothing really stuck out to the group as something major that needed fixing. It was only when Lily had started to become suspicious that James was keeping a secret from her, a bigger one than the one he had revealed to her about Severus Snape cursing him, that things fell apart for good. It seemed that there was nothing wrong until this.

When Lily had shared her suspicions with Alice and Hestia, both girls had a different approach. Hestia said to keep bugging him until he told her and Alice had advised to just let it go. Boys needed their secrets just as much as girls did. Lily tried both but neither worked for her so she started to give James the silent treatment, a childish move which she did begin to regret. But just as she had resolved to stop it, James had asked to speak to her in private. He led her down to the shrieking shack and, having asked for permission from his friends, revealed to her that Remus was a werewolf and that he, Sirius and Peter were illegal animagi. He had shown her it was true and she was shocked. She had almost broken up with him on the spot but he begged her to go away and think about it before she did. He asked only one thing of her, not to tell anyone. But Lily had just learnt something incredible and was trying to figure it out. She was talking to herself about it, still in shock, when Hestia had walked into the room and overheard Lily's ramblings about Remus, but not about the boys. Realising that Hestia had heard her thoughts, Lily raced after her only to find her in the common room confronting Remus about his lycanthropy. Unfortunately, Hestia was one of the many in the wizarding world who was prejudice towards someone with Remus' condition. This was when things broke down for good. It came down to a contest of morals.

Hestia had turned to Lily when they both found themselves in their dormitory later and had tried to sooth her, as any good friend would do. She told her that breaking up with James was the best thing for her as he and his friends had knowingly put her in danger for years. They couldn't be trusted. Remus was a werewolf. It was disgusting. It would have been good to hear if it was what Lily was thinking. But it wasn't. Remus wasn't disgusting. The prejudice was unfound. And Lily had realised at this point that she loved James and she didn't want things to be over, even though he wasn't speaking to her at that moment in time. When Lily had voiced this though, Hestia hadn't seen reason and had given Lily an ultimatum; she could either go out with James and lose her friendship or dump James and move on with Hestia by her side as a shoulder to cry on. Unable to make the decision, Lily let Hestia believe what she wanted though still not giving up on James. When Hestia figured this out she was furious. She had told Lily that if she needed time to think things through than all she had to do was ask. She gave Lily a few days to decide but, for her, Lily made the wrong choice. They weren't friends after that. And Hestia became somewhat of a loner, her attitude and constant anger keeping anyone from getting close to her.

Alice had stuck by Lily. She didn't know of Remus' condition so to her, Hestia's anger and ultimatum were uncalled for. She didn't like what Hestia had forced her to do; choose between her best friend and her boyfriend. And she didn't like the fact that if Lily and Hestia spoke after they had fallen out, Hestia would just throw the fact that she had dumped Sean McEvoy for Lily's friendship when that decision was hers to make. Hestia had become cold and cruel, not even a ghost of the girl she used to be. So out of the five in the dormitory, the ones who had been close at the beginning, three groups had emerged; Emmeline and Mary, Hestia on her own, and Lily and Alice. They all knew the fickleness of friendship so, determined to keep their friendship strong, Lily and Alice decided to stay in contact after Hogwarts and meet up at least once a week. Last week they had had a sleepover at Alice's. This week, they were sat in muggle London, in a little café in Covent Garden that Lily just adored and wanted to show Alice.

They were sat by a large window in peeling brown leather chairs, two cups of tea on the small table between them, and in conversation about Lily's recent dinner with James and his mum; Jane Potter.

'It was…uncomfortable.' Lily said, choosing her words carefully in answer to Alice's question.

'Yikes.' Alice deadpanned, leaning forwards and picking up her china bone tea cup, sipping the warm liquid inside. She could see why Lily loved this place so much. The tea was the best she had ever tasted and, even though the chairs were old, they were extremely comfortable. Plus, thanks to their seats at the window, you could sit all day and just watch the muggles mill around in their day to day lives.

'Well it was at the beginning anyway.' Lily corrected herself. Her meal with the Potters had been a bit painful to sit through at the beginning. But she assumed that meeting your boyfriend's mother wasn't supposed to be comparable to a pleasant walk in Hyde Park.

'I'd actually be surprised if it wasn't, to be honest.' Alice said, 'When I met Franks mum…oh good Merlin. It was like watching paint dry.'

'Really?' Lily laughed.

'She tried to take me shopping afterwards, just me and her so we could bond.' Alice explained, putting her tea down on the table and leaning forwards to Lily a bit to whisper dramatically, 'And if you saw how she dressed…'

Lily laughed again. 'That bad, huh?'

'She bought a hat with a falcon on it!' Alice exclaimed, relaxing into her chair again. 'Apparently she has a huge collection of hats with birds on them.' Alice gave a visible shudder.

Lily grinned at her. 'Ok.' she said, holding her hands up, 'Yours is worse!'

'Thank you!' Alice smiled, bowing her head as if she had won an award or was welcoming applause.

'But at least you didn't have Sirius making insinuations all the way through though.' Lily pointed out, picking up her own cup of tea and taking a sip.

'Oh no! He didn't?' Alice asked with a 'you're kidding me?' expression, 'In that case I think we might be even.'

Lily shrugged and put her cup of tea down.

'What did he say?' Alice wondered.

Lily held back her blush. Even thinking over all the insinuations that Sirius had made caused her cheeks to go pink but she had been getting better at trying to stop this from happening. She just had to breathe deeply and try her hardest to think of something else. She did this now when she told Alice just one of the things he had said.

'I think one of the worst was when was buttering a piece of bread and he said, 'I like to spread it all over, spread it wide. I bet you know a bit about doing that don't you Lily.''

Alice muffled her laughter as Lily hung her head and hid her face with her deep red hair. She could control the blush sometimes but other times she just had to hide it.

'What did you do?' Alice queried.

'Same as what I'm doing now.' Lily answered through her hair. She looked up through her eyelashes but all she could see was a sleek curtain of deep red. Alice was hidden behind it. She could still hear the laughter in her voice.

'Aw Lily I wouldn't worry about it.' Alice said kindly, getting Lily to look up.

'It was in front of his mum!' she exclaimed.

Alice gave another little laugh before looking around her, seeing if there were any eavesdroppers. When she was satisfied that there weren't, she leant forwards to Lily as she had done before and whispered in a curious tone, 'You haven't have you?'

Lily knew exactly what she meant and shook her head. 'I don't think I would have been as embarrassed if I had.' she said back, her voice automatically dropping to Alice's level.

Alice nodded in understanding. Sex wasn't as embarrassing to talk about once you had actually done it. At least it wasn't for her. 'Do you want to?' she pried.

Lily thought for a second. Did she want to? Did she want to have sex with James? Well, why would she be in a relationship with his if that wasn't one of the inevitable goals? If she didn't think it would ever happen then their relationship could be compared to that of her and Peter for goodness sakes. She didn't want a purely plutonic relationship with James forever otherwise they may as well be considered as 'just friends'. So obviously, she did want to at some point. She just wasn't sure when that would be.

She nodded in answer to Alice's question who, for some unconscious reason, nodded back.

'I just…' Lily began, once more thinking of her words carefully as she seemed to be doing a lot lately. 'I don't get why it has to be such a big deal.' she said with a bit of a sigh.

'Who knows,' Alice started as she picked up her tea once more, 'it might not be.' she winked, as bad with the insinuations as Sirius was on Saturday. Why he couldn't have sat quietly and just eaten his dinner like Remus had, Lily would never know.

Lily rolled her eyes and quickly changed the subject. 'So you applied for the auror training programme?' she said. When she had stayed round Alice's, the pair of them had started to talk about the fact that, even though neither of them had shown no interest in it before leaving Hogwarts, Alice and Frank had applied for the auror training programme on a whim. They had been called down to dinner by Alice's mum before they could really get into a conversation and had forgotten about it by the time they had finished eating. When Lily had returned home, she had remembered and had been meaning to ask about it the next time they met up. That was today.

'Change of subject!' Alice pointed out. She went with it though. She knew that Lily was in that place where talking about sex or anything related to it was just uncomfortable for her. She started to talk about the auror training programme to placate her. 'Yeah we applied for it. But I highly doubt we'll get in.'

'Why?' Lily asked, astounded by Alice's lack of confidence in this endeavour. 'I think you'll make a great auror!'

'Maybe, yeah. But I didn't take potions.' Alice said, 'Neither did Frank.'

'Oh yeah.' Lily sighed. She had forgotten that out of all the students in her year, only four Gryffindors had elected to take potions; herself, James, Remus and Sirius. Not many people were keen on the subject, tired of Professor Slughorn's favouritism and the rest just didn't get the marks. 'I forgot you needed that.' she went on, 'Why apply if you don't have it then?'

'Well,' Alice started, her tea cup still in her hand. She swilled the rest of the liquid around in the bottom of her cup. 'We just thought that the world is in such a state, what with you-know-who and all, and it's bound to just get worse, that maybe they'd be desperate enough to make exceptions.'

'Do you think they will?' Lily questioned.

'Maybe. Who knows?' Alice shrugged drinking the last dregs of her tea and staring at the tea leaves that rested at the bottom afterwards. 'When you're in a war, you rally as many people who want to fight as possible. And I want to fight.'

* * *

In one of the many outhouses on the Potter's grounds was a motorcycle. It was resting on a floor of old newspapers, nearly all of which had large smears of oil across them, covering up anything that might have been a good read. It was rather large, able to fit two people onto the smooth leather seat easily, and it had a rather unique look to it. There was no logo on it so you could tell it hadn't been bought from a dealership however, if you were going to compare it to something on the market, the closest comparison you could find would be the R75/5 model from BMW. It had a very similar design with a two cylinder engine and a double cradle steel frame only it was considerably bigger in size. That was mostly down to the fact that this motorcycle was being built by hand by a boy who knew practically nothing about constructing such a vehicle, (and was also using enlargement charms to ensure it was the biggest, baddest bike out there). Still, remarkably he had put it together rather well and it was almost complete.

In just over a year, Sirius had managed to assemble a vehicle which, if it was taken for the proper tests - MOT and such – was roadworthy. From reading instruction manuals and researching the general field of motorcycles, he had managed to build a four-stroke, boxer engine that had a cable operated throttle, was air-cooled and attached to a longitudinal mount. He had managed to install a carburetor to supply fuel, rear twin shock suspension, a dry, single plate, cable operated clutch and a manual four-speed gear box. It could go from zero to one hundred miles per hour in just six and a half seconds and had a kick stand to support it when stationary. Sirius could tell you every part of this bike, inside and out. It was his baby. It had consumed his life and his mind since he had received the parts and manual from the Potters for Christmas the year before last. He had worked on it at every available moment with various inputs of help from James and Remus. But neither of them cared about it the way he did. To them, and anyone else who saw it, it was just a very large black bike…without a light bar. He was doing that now.

He sat on the floor of the outhouse, amongst the oil stained newspapers in oil stained jeans, his legs crossed. He wore a plain, barely white t-shirt that was caked in grime, dirt and almost a year's worth of sweat. His usually pristinely styled hair had a bit of a flick to it, probably from the heat that summer was bringing their way. Sweat was beading on his forehead and, every once in a while, he would wipe it off with the back of his hand. His handsome face was screwed up into a frown and he was staring at the front of his bike, the light bar in his hands. From the work bench at the side of the outhouse, James stood reading the instructions out to him.

'Place the lightbar bracket through the wires.' James said in a bored voice. He was leaning against the splintering worktop in similarly oil stained jeans and a thin grey t-shirt which hung off his toned body with ease. He had a small paper booklet in his left hand, his right hand between Lily's bare knees.

Lily was sitting on the wooden side in a pretty white dress with a blue floral pattern across it. It was a thin cotton summer dress. She had thought she was going out to lunch with James so had dressed for the occasion; a summer picnic, a walk through the park somewhere. What she hadn't predicted was sitting in a stuffy outhouse for most of the afternoon, listening to her boyfriend read the same line of instruction seven times whilst Sirius attempted to carry out the action. It was a little bit tedious and, considering the weather and the fact that she and James hadn't seen each other for almost a week and a half now, it was also highly frustrating.

'Dude!' Sirius said in a slightly agitated tone, 'Which wires are you on about here? I have lots of wires and I've put this bloody thing through each of them about twenty times each. It would help if you were more specific.'

'I can't be more specific Sirius!' James replied, his teeth gritted. They had had this argument not ten minutes ago, the fifth time he had read the instruction to him. 'I can be as specific as what I am reading. It may come as a bit of a surprise to you but I don't actually know anything about motor bikes!'

Sirius glared at him for a split second and scowled. He then sighed and turned back to his bike, not bothering to retort with any smart arse comment. Namely because he couldn't think of one. He tried to put the bracket in place a few more times, determined to try and get this done today. He had only a few things left to work on and, if he got the lightbar connected and the lights all in place, he could be done the next day. Then the only obstacle he would have to get over was finding a way to make it fly. And learning how to ride it of course but he just assumed he would pick that up easily. It was nothing to worry about.

'Where's Remus?' Lily asked, wondering if she might be able to go and find him and keep him company. It would probably be a lot more exciting than listening to James and Sirius go over the same conversation over and over again.

'Why?' James replied, not particularly paying attention but rather flicking slowly through the instruction leaflet to see if he had missed anything that could help Sirius with the lightbar and perhaps put an end to their bickering.

'So I can go find him?' she said, as if her question had an obvious connotation. Which, to be fair, it did. She was quite plainly asking where Remus was.

'Why?' James repeated, still flicking through the instruction leaflet.

'Because-'

'Ah ha!' James said, patting Lily's knee once in triumph before standing up straight and walking over to where Sirius was sat. He crouched down next to him and shoved the instructions under his nose. 'Does this help?' he asked.

Sirius looked at the leaflet, looked up at James, back to the leaflet, over to the front of his bike, and then back at the leaflet again. He frowned and rolled his eyes. As he put the lightbar in his lap and sorted through the wires at the front of his bike, he said, 'You know this would have been a big help like ten minutes ago.'

James stared at him blankly for a few seconds before slapping him around the back of the head. 'Don't be smart.' he said, 'That's my job.'

Sirius laughed, the frustration of not being able to fix his lightbar to his bike gone now that James had found a diagram of how to do it. All he had needed to do was cross the turn signal wires and place it through them before fixing it behind the frame holes. If he had been brought up around motor vehicles as muggles were, he probably would have been able to figure it all out a lot sooner and without the help of the diagram. The words James had been reading to him would have been enough to help him figure it out. Then again, Sirius had always been a visual person so maybe it wouldn't have made too much of a difference.

Lily sat on the side still, drawing circles on the worktop with her fingers, careful not to get splinters in them. She sighed audibly.

'What's up Lily?' Sirius asked her, now picking up a screw and a bolt from a set of two that were on a little plastic bag on the floor next to him. He put the screw through the bottom of a hole near where he had just placed the lightbar and started to screw the bolt on the top by hand so that it wouldn't fall out.

'I just didn't think this was what I was going to be doing today.' she said, looking over to James with raised eyebrows. He looked back at her apologetically but it didn't make her feel any better.

'D'ya think you were gonna be doing James instead?' Sirius snickered, earning himself another smack around the back of the head by James. 'You were thinking it.' he mumbled in return to this action.

'Ahem.' a voice came from behind them, alerting the three of them to the presence of someone else just outside the open doors of the outhouse.

James looked over his shoulder, still crouching next to Sirius, and saw his mother. She was once again in her healers robes, the only outfit he ever really saw her in anymore. The last time he remembered her wearing anything else was when Lily had come to dinner a week and a half ago. That was an awkward occasion he didn't really want to linger over. Especially as this was the first time his mum had seen her since then. It was going to be awkward again and better to focus on what was happening now rather than what had happened then.

'Hey mum.' he said, standing up to face her, his back now to Lily. He folded his arms, almost defensively.

'Could you do me a favour please?' she asked him, looking at her watch to make sure she had a couple minutes spare to talk to him. She did. Just.

'Yeah sure.' James replied.

'Could you go to Slug and Jiggers either today or tomorrow and get me a few things?' she said, knowing the answer should be yes.

'What kind of things?' James said with a slight grimace. He had hoped not to step foot in that shop for at least another few weeks for that would be when he would be starting his auror training programme. And he knew he would be starting it. He was assured a place really. He was smart and talented, almost guaranteed to get great grades in his N.E.W.T's and if that wasn't enough, his dad had been an auror. And a brilliant one at that. The auror department would expect nothing less from him.

'Just the ingredients for a Vitamix Potion. There's a list on the kitchen counter.' she said offhandedly as if it was no big deal.

'Why do you need a Vitamix potion?' James wondered, frowning. 'Are you ok?'

Jane gave her son a placating smile. 'I'm fine James, don't worry.' she appeased, 'It's just with all the hours I'm working lately I feel an extra boost of energy would do me good.'

James didn't look convinced and looked over his shoulder to see Lily give him a small shrug. It wasn't a big deal.

'Ok.' James replied cautiously. It was nothing to worry about but Jane was the only family he had left and, ever since his dad died, he had actually been worried about losing her too. He was sure it wouldn't happen for a long time. She was only sixty-one and, although in the muggle world that was rather old for a parent, (Jane had believed she was unable to have children until James came along in her early forties), it was still a young age in the wizarding world. So James predicted he would be at least a few years younger than her until she passed.

'Lily dear,' Jane said turning to Lily.

Lily sat up straight on the counter and stopped drawing circles on the counter. This being only the third time she had met James' mother, the first two not being that great for a good first impression, she was determined to prove that James couldn't be dating a politer and kinder girl. 'Yes Mrs Potter?' she said.

'Suck up.' Sirius snorted, earning himself a swift but subtle kick from James which he just laughed off.

'Please, call me Jane, Lily.' Jane corrected her, ignoring Sirius' comment. 'I was wondering if you were free on Friday?'

'I think so, yes.' Lily replied, thinking over her plans in her head. It was Wednesday today. She was going to help her dad paint Petunia's old room tomorrow but she assumed that wouldn't take longer than one day. And even if it did, she was sure here dad wouldn't stop her from visiting James' mum, no matter what his problems with James were.

'Well, I was wondering if you would like to go to lunch with me?' Jane said, 'It would only be in my lunch hour from work but I've taken it unpaid so there's less of a chance of me being called back.'

'Mum-' James started to say.

'Yeah that would be lovely.' Lily said, cutting him off so that he wouldn't make an excuse for her. She wasn't exactly enthralled with the idea of an uncomfortable hour alone with James' mum where she could ask any sort of question about their relationship but, it was only an hour. And she did want James' mum to like her. It would be a lot easier to achieve a good impression without James around. Or Sirius for that matter. He was the one who had made their dinner a week and a half ago rather uncomfortable.

'Brilliant.' Jane smiled at her. 'Well I've got to shoot off now so I'll see you tomorrow boys and I'll see you on Friday Lily. Bye.'

'Bye.' James, Sirius and Lily said all together in farewell to Mrs Potter who apparated on the spot with a swift turn.

James looked at where she had stood for a few seconds before turning around and looking at Lily. She was still sat upright, her deep red hair falling over her shoulders.

'You don't have to go you know.' he stated, obviously referring to the lunch his mother had just asked her too. He didn't really want her to go himself and felt that his mum had sort of forced it on her a little bit.

'I know.' Lily said, 'I want to though.'

'Why?' James asked, confused as to what had possessed Lily to say a genuine yes to his mother's suggestion. He walked over to her and stood in front of her, parting her legs so he could stand in between and lean his stomach against the worktop she was on. He put his left hand around her waist and his right under her knee and pulled her towards him so that they were closer, face to face.

'Because you don't get on with my dad.' Lily said, allowing him to drag her towards him. He had done it gently and, amazingly, she hadn't gotten any splinters from the action.

'Actually he doesn't get on with me.' James pointed out looking into her eyes, 'I have no problem with him.'

'Still,' Lily said placing her hands on his chest, the thin grey fabric of his t-shirt creasing slightly under her touch, 'It would be helpful if your mum liked me. That way things won't be as awkward as they are when you come to mine when I come here.'

'I haven't been to yours yet.' James said, a smirk growing on his face as his right hand travelled from behind Lily's knee up her thigh, just under her dress. 'I've never even been in your room.'

Lily looked down to her knees and, taking one hand off of his chest, she stopped his hand with her own, preventing him from traveling any further under her dress. She looked up at him through her lashes and the pair stared at each other for a heated few seconds, both breathing deeply, before Lily looked away. She removed herself from their position, manoeuvring herself elegantly around James and focusing her attention on Sirius who was oblivious to the moment she and James had just had.

'So do you actually know how to ride a bike?' she asked him, smoothing down her dress and briefly glancing back at James who was now leaning on the worktop and staring at her in such a way she felt rather nervous. And all of a sudden completely aware of her body.

She suddenly realised that most of her legs were on show, the dress she was wearing only coming to just above her knees. It was also a halter neck dress so her shoulders and quite a bit of her back was on show too. And she was now very aware that she wasn't wearing a bra. Her dress had hidden support so she hadn't needed one but she now felt a little bit exposed even though she was completely covered up. She felt as if she was naked but she wasn't. Her heart was speeding up and beating rather loudly. She could swear it was audible. Her breathing started to become a little bit heavy. She could feel James' gaze burning through her. She felt very hot.

'I don't need to know how to ride a bike.' Sirius said, taking no notice of the sudden rise in tension between James and Lily. If he had noticed he probably would have left the room. Or stayed just to make things even more awkward. It would have depended on what mood he was in; good friend or annoying idiot. 'It's gonna fly. I just need to know how to ride a broom which I do. Fantastically, by the way.'

'How are you going to make it fly?' Lily wondered, trying her upmost not to look over at James again.

'Dunno yet.' Sirius shrugged, fiddling with a couple of turn signals and attempting to figure out how they fixed onto the lightbar via the instruction manual James had left open on the floor. 'Remus said he'll try and figure out a way as soon as I'm finished.'

'And if he can't?' Lily queried.

'Then I learn how to ride a bike.' Sirius said, 'Duh.' He shook his head at Lily's question and put the turn signals into his lap. He picked up the instruction manual and studied it with a scowl.

The room went quiet. Lily looked back at James. He was still staring at her. She had no idea how he could have gone from paying barely any attention to her to giving her attention by the bucket load, staring at her as if she was the only person in the world to him. The look he was giving her was unlike any he had before. And she found she rather liked that look.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	6. Chapter 5

**And here is Chapter Five! It has a lovely dose of Severus at the end! :[**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Five**

When Friday came around, Lily nervously went to St. Mungo's wizarding hospital to meet Jane Potter for lunch. She was rather anxious about it all, being alone with James' mother for an hour. What if they found nothing to talk about? What if it ended up being a very uncomfortable, _silent _lunch where all you could hear was the sound of them both chewing? And then what if she ended up getting something stuck in her teeth and because they weren't talking and Jane didn't know how to point it out without sounding rude or critical? This lunch was going to be a nightmare, she was convinced of it. She had talked herself into her paranoia and she didn't think that there was any way of talking herself out of it. She just had to hope that it wouldn't actually be as bad as she was imagining it to be.

She sat in the crowded fifth floor visitor's tea room on a table for two in the corner. The noise was almost deafening. Jane Potter had sent her a note this morning asking her to wait there for her at one o'clock as that was when her lunch hour started. Lily had arrived five minutes early just to make sure she was on time. She didn't think it would look too good if she was late. She sat with her legs crossed, her ankle jittering up and down nervously whilst she wrung her hands together. She was wearing deep blue blouse with a small denim skirt because she had wanted to look smart but casual at the same time. But now she feared that she was starting to sweat from nerves and it was soaking through her shirt. She hoped not but she subtly tried to check it wasn't happening. Unfortunately for her, Jane Potter took that moment to bustle over.

'Ah Lily dear, there you are!' Jane said as she reached the table. She was carefully carrying a rather large cup of tea in her hand. It was all she was going to have for her lunch break today, having to always be prepared for the slightest possibility that she could be called back, (even though she had taken this hour unpaid to avoid that happening). It was always good to be prepared though and besides, she didn't feel very hungry today anyway.

Lily shot up to standing, trying her hardest to hide her flush of embarrassment and praying that Jane hadn't seen her trying to discreetly check for sweat stains. 'Hi.' she said, feeling as if she should offer her hand for a hand shake but then realising that that was just stupid. It was like she was treating this as an interview when it was anything but. She needed to relax. It wasn't that big a deal; just lunch with her boyfriend's mum.

Jane sat down in the seat opposite Lily, (Lily sitting down too), and apologised for being just a couple of minutes late. 'I'm sorry I'm a little bit late.' Jane said, settling herself down on the wooden chair that was standard for the visitors tea room, 'It's been rather busy here today.' She placed her cup of tea down and popped two little sugar cubes into it from the pot on the table.

'Anything unusual?' Lily asked, a little bit curiously. Something could have happened pertaining to Voldemort and his efforts to try and take over the wizarding world or it could just be how St. Mungos was on a Friday. Either way she wanted to know. If something was happening with Voldemort then she was at higher risk than most thanks to her blood status and, if it was just day to day activities at the wizarding hospital, then she wanted to know that too. After all, in just a couple of short weeks she would find out whether or not she had earned a spot in the healer training programme that was run here.

'Not really.' Jane said, brushing it away. She felt her forehead feeling as if she was about to have a hot flush but it passed and she carried on. 'This is normal for a Friday. It seems that people like to pick this particular day to do silly things and clog up the hospital. I've just finished treating a man who decided it would be a bright idea to stick a fake moustache onto himself using a permanent sticking charm, (apparently he couldn't grow one himself), only to find out that he was rather severely allergic to the black cat hair his wife had made it from.'

Lily raised her hand to her mouth to try and smother a giggle. It didn't work and a bubble of laughter escaped her lips.

Jane looked up at her, the beginnings of a smile on her face, and stirred the cup of tea she had brought with her with her wand until all the sugar was dissolved. 'You can laugh dear.' Jane said to Lily, realising she was doing her hardest not to let a giggle escape, 'If you want to be a healer in this place you have to learn to laugh at certain cases.'

Lily squashed her giggles even so and looked down to her hands. She was wringing them anxiously again.

'Would you like anything to drink, dear?' Jane asked her kindly, 'My treat.'

'Oh, no, I'm fine thank you.' Lily said politely, congratulating herself inwardly for being so courteous. She thought she was doing rather well so far. Granted it had only been a couple of minutes but she had asked a question and was being well-mannered. She was pleased with herself, thinking that she had gotten away with how this little lunch adventure was actually making her feel slightly uncomfortable, but really, she wasn't that lucky. And Jane was quite perceptive.

'You're nervous.' she stated, tilting her head as if daring Lily to contest her observation, 'There's no need to be nervous Lily dear. I don't bite.'

'I know.' Lily said straight away, a little bit defensively. She cursed herself internally, thinking she may have come of rude.

'Lily don't be nervous.' Jane laughed, 'I'm sure James has tried to convince you that I'm going to interrogate you about your relationship with him but, believe me, I'm not going to do that.'

Lily paused. James had said that his mother was highly curious about their relationship, him never having brought home a girlfriend before. He had told her to be wary of questions but Lily had just brushed it off at the time. Then she had gotten to thinking and had slowly convinced herself that what James had said could very well be true. But here was Jane herself saying that it wasn't. She was quite confused. If she didn't have a real idea of what to expect before, she had no clue now.

'Really?' she asked cautiously.

'Yes dear.' Jane said, nodding her head kindly. 'Your relationship with him is your own affair.'

'Then,' Lily began, trying to find a way to phrase her question without it sounding impolite, 'why did you invite me to lunch? If you don't mind me asking.'

Jane picked up her cup of tea before answering. 'I just thought it would be nice to get to know you without the boys around. Without James trying to answer all of your questions for you or prevent me asking you any questions which he deems too personal.'

'Too personal?' Lily asked as Jane took a sip of her tea. She wondered what on earth James might consider too personal. After all, for the past two years, they had become very personal, even before they had started dating. Of course, there were things he didn't share to begin with, the whole business with Remus and when Linda, his house elf died, but he had done eventually. He was very private and somethings he did keep to himself, preventing anyone from finding out what these things were by disappearing on occasion. But for Lily, he seemed to open up a bit more. He had told her things of a personal. And she had with him.

'Yes, James has always been a rather private person.' Jane said with a small nod as if backing up her statement with a gesture. 'When he was younger and got upset or mad he would disappear for hours. The first few times it happened we thought he'd run away. I was beside myself. My husband and I would try to find him but, unless he wanted to be found he would stay hidden. We had to give up eventually and just leave him to it. He kept it all private though, whatever he did when he disappeared. He's not too keen on sharing how he feels or certain facts and, when it comes to you I sense it's a no different. He seems rather protective of you.' she went on, giving Lily a rather poignant look.

Lily took a breath as if about to speak but couldn't find any words to say.

'You only have to see the way he reacted to Sirius' insinuations at dinner to know that.' Jane said offhandedly.

Lily gave a small breathless laugh and squashed her hands between her knees, hoping that if she pained them enough, she could stop the blush that she was sure was going to arrive at the mention of Sirius' behaviour over dinner.

'That's another reason why I wanted to have lunch with you.' Jane went on casually.

Lily eyes widened. Her knees, (which she had been pressing together hard against her hands), relaxed, her hands going limp. She was a little in shock at what Jane had just said. What? Not a minute ago she had said that she hadn't invited Lily to lunch with the intention of interrogating her. And yet now, one second or so after mentioning Sirius constant insinuations about James and Lily's sex life, Jane Potter had said that was a reason she wanted to have lunch with her. What was she going to ask?

'What?' Lily asked softly, her voice portraying how suddenly scared she had become.

Jane looked up at her and blinked a couple of times, realising what must have caused her unexpected worry. 'Oh. No dear.' Jane said, trying to put Lily's mind at ease. She had taken her words in the wrong context. 'I don't mean that's why I've asked you to have lunch with me.' She smiled kindly and shook her head reassuringly. 'I'm not the slightest bit interested what you two do together, whether you're sleeping together or not.'

Lily's eyes, if it was possible, got wider and there was no hiding her blush anymore. She hadn't expected Jane Potter to be so open.

'You're both old enough and daft enough to do what you want.' Jane went on, paying no heed to Lily's quickly flushing face, 'And besides, I highly doubt me forbidding it would have any effect. You're going to do what you're going to do and, so long as you're both careful, I have no cause to intrude in that part of your lives and James would probably kill me if I asked. It's completely your business with him.'

'Uh huh.' Lily responded, unable to form any real words. She felt very uncomfortable and awkward and yet, at the same time, she felt completely at ease. Sure her parents had always encouraged her to be open with how she felt but she highly doubted that you would catch them having a conversation such as this. The only conversation she had had that even remotely came close to this was when her dad had confronted her in the kitchen last Christmas, and that wasn't one which she wanted to relive.

Instead of being cool about the idea of James and Lily being together, treating her like a sensible adult that could make her own decisions, her dad had demanded Lily do nothing of the sort with James, (he really didn't like him). So Lily, doing what any teenager would do, went to James' house and had tried to do exactly the opposite of what her dad had ordered. Thankfully, James was a gentleman and had swayed her off it. He had been lovely to her and had stopped her doing something which he knew she wasn't ready for at the time. That wasn't to say she wouldn't ever be ready. That wasn't to say she wasn't ready _now_. Anyway, Lily just couldn't believe how nonchalant Jane Potter was about this subject.

'What I had meant was, what I had hoped,' Jane went on, brushing over what Lily was obviously not to comfortable discussing with her, 'was to get to know you without Sirius making any comments about it all.'

'Yeah.' Lily said, knowing nothing else she could say.

'I just think that, as its most likely you and James will spend time over at our place, it would be nicer, and a little less awkward, if you and I knew each other a bit better.' Jane said.

'Yeah.' Lily repeated.

'Especially because of the circumstances that we initially met under.' Jane pointed out, picking up her tea again and having a sip.

'Yeah I…' Lily began, sighing as she found her words, 'I didn't really want to meet you like that. I wasn't exactly showing my best colours.'

'I wouldn't worry about it dear.' Jane said comfortingly, 'It wasn't a choice but we have a chance to make a fresh start and get to know each other a bit better so I say we take it.'

'Definitely.' Lily smiled, finally beginning to relax.

'Brilliant. Now dear,' Jane said, now satisfied that Lily was comfortable. She made the offer again. 'Would you like a drink?'

Lily agreed. 'Yes, please.'

* * *

Severus Snape walked out of Cobb and Webb's, a dark arts shop down Knockturn Alley. It was much more his speed. He had just finished an interview with the shops manager and was pretty sure that he had received the job. He needed it. Ideally he would have dedicated all of his time to Voldemort and being a death eater. It was what he believed in and what he wanted to do, but there was no money in it. He wasn't like most of the other death eaters. He wasn't from a pureblood family with old money, someone who could just waste their life by living off of their family's wealth, never needing to get a job. He had none of that. So to live, to eat, buy potions ingredients and just have his own money in general, he needed a job.

Severus had been picky though. He didn't just want any job. He didn't want to be scooping out ice-cream to mudbloods at Florean Fortescue's and he didn't want to be cleaning the faeces that the owls dropped in the post office. He wanted something he was going to enjoy, something he could get something out of and, perhaps most of all, something related to the dark arts, no matter how remotely that may be. With this in mind he had actually only gone into shops down Knockturn Alley and only three had said they were hiring; Mr Mulpeppers Apothecary, Cobb and Webb's and Moribund's.

He had gone for his first interview a few days before hand at Moribund's. Moribund's was a small corner shop, closeted in cobwebs and dust. It was lit by a floating orange ball of light which rested on an ornate flat chandelier in the middle of the room. It hardly did any good in aiding a customer to see the contents of the shop, but they needn't be able to really. The shop floor was more like an office. There were a few chairs for customers to sit on and a desk which two shop assistant, (hopefully one of which would be Severus), manned at all times. To buy anything from Moribund's, you had to know what you wanted, and you had to request it off of the shop assistant. If they had it, then one of the shop assistants would disappear behind a deep green, dusty velvet curtain to find it. The shop sold mostly spell books and potion books, those that any self-respecting witch or wizard would avoid where possible. Books which had been banned by the Ministry but were still in secret existence behind that curtain. Of course, there were more than books sold there; quills that withdrew the authors blood as ink when writing, ink that forced the writer to do whatever they had written, (whether that be fetch groceries or killing themselves), and parchment which stung to the touch of anybody who's name was not upon it, burning the victims hands to such a degree, a trip to St Mungo's would be necessary.

Severus had interviewed there, behind that velvet curtain, and had shown a keen interest in the spell books. Moribund had seemed very impressed when Severus said he had created a couple of his own spells. He had become particularly interested when Severus had explained his favourite spell of his own creation; _sectumsempra. _But not wanting to divulge too much on his inventions Severus had moved on to speak about his skills in charms and the dark arts, complaining that Hogwarts only offered a _Defence_ Against the Dark Arts class. Moribund had liked his comment about that and had gone on to call it an injustice. He seemed to like him and said that, after he had seen the other applicants that week, he would send word with an owl to Severus, depicting whether or not he had gotten the job. Severus had left with a handshake.

A couple of days later, he had interviews for jobs at both Cobb and Webb's and Mr Mulpeppers Apothecary. Cobb and Webb's were looking for a shop assistant like Moribund's, and Mulpeppers was for a potioneer who would be able to brew the potions the shop sold already made. He wasn't sure which one he would enjoy more, his love for the dark arts levelling his skill at making potions, so he went into each with an open mind. Cobb and Webb's was first. It was the interview he had just finished.

It was probably one of the largest shops down Knockturn Alley and drummed up a good business with many regular cliental. It was also probably one of the most open shops down Knockturn Alley, unashamed of what it was selling and displaying it all nicely. It was still rather dingy inside though. Its main rival was Borgin and Burkes which was very similar in shop philosophy. There were shelves of dark arts related objects floating half way up the walls running around pretty much the entire shop with only with display cabinets interrupting them every few feet. There were stock cupboards which came to hip height running around the shop in the same manner as the shelves, dark arts displays upon the top of them, all arranged in a pleasing visual manner. There were several round tables dotted around the floor space of the shop, cluttered with objects ready for sale, some of them demonstrating purposes; a rope that repeatedly tied itself into a noose and a whirring enemy detector which spun around every twenty minutes and let of a loud reverberating ding to show what it would do if an enemy entered your home. Towards the back of the shop was the service counter which also doubled up as a glass display cabinet for some of the pricier items. There was a door behind the counter which only led out into a small back room where the staff would rest in their lunch breaks. It was here where Severus was interviewed by Webb.

He was asked about his knowledge of the dark arts, of which Severus made it very clear he had an abundance of, and asked to identify some of the more trickier objects that Cobb and Webb's sold; a blade which stored the victim's blood in the handle after stabbing and a hat which caused the wearers brain to become infected with a slow and unnoticeable mental disorder which would ultimately end up in their moving to a permanent residence in St Mungo's. Severus did rather well but he couldn't really say that he enjoyed the interview, not as much as Moribund's. He found it a rather strict and boring environment to be in and couldn't help but think it was probably ten times worse to work in an atmosphere like this. If he didn't get either of the other two jobs he had applied for then he would take it but he desperately hoped he didn't have to. He left feeling deflated and just hoping that the owl that was supposed to arrive in a few days to inform him of Webb's decision got lost or was struck by lightning. Either would do.

He left Cobb and Webb's at around twenty to one, still having another twenty minutes to kill before his next interview. He passed the time by nipping round to the main street of Diagon Alley, making his way quickly to Sugarplums Sweets Shop to pick up a couple of liquorice wands with what little money he had managed to steal from his mother's purse. He bought two of them and stayed in the shop until he had finished one of them so he could shoplift another without drawing any sort of obvious attention. After he left the shop, he hung around the entrance, leaning against the crumbling brick wall moodily and watching the people in the street. Mostly he was sneering at them, assuming that none of them were supporters of Voldemort and were all frightened little rats who scurried about in their days, scared that something might happen as the death eaters hadn't done anything that the community would consider bad in at least five days. But that was because they had other plans.

Whilst he stood there, a little part of him hoped that he might catch a glimpse of Lily Evans. Of course, he had no way of knowing whether she was actually in Diagon Alley as he hadn't see her since they left Hogwarts weeks ago, but it was a feeble hope of his that perhaps he was destined to see her out and about. It was a foolish wish and often lead to him seeing flashes of dark red hair or hearing her voice. However, he had realised early on that all of that was in his head. No, he had to get used to the idea that he may never see her again. He may never see her until there was a bounty on her head for her blood status. The next time he faced her she may very well be dead and, although he hated the thought, he had to get used to the fact it could be true. It never stopped him hoping that he may see her on the off chance though; in normal circumstances.

He finished his liquorice wand and pushed himself off of the wall with his shoulder and then, (upon not being able to do so properly), with his hands, moving his feet backwards so as he was standing. He spat on the floor in front of the door to Sugarplums Sweets Shop, earning himself a disapproving glare from an older witch with two small children with curly blonde hair. He sneered at her and pushed past her children roughly, earning himself another glare, as he made his way back to Knockturn Alley. He walked down the brick stairs that lead into the street with his hands in his pockets, the same slump in his walk that he had in his shoulders. He let out a sigh as he walked to the shop he now had an interview at: Mr Mulpeppers Apothecary. It had a sister shop in Diagon Alley but the one in Knockturn Alley was much more his speed. Still, he wasn't sure if he wanted a job in potions and so that was the reason behind his deep 'if I have to' breath as he pulled down the door handle and stepped into the shop.

It was, again, a dingy little shop which was hidden amongst one of the thin winding streets that made Knockturn Alley far larger than it seemed. It was in the middle of the terrace and, when inside, you realised that the walls leant slightly to the left. It was a tiny shop with pewter cauldrons and copper pots running around the shop from either side of the door to the service counter at the back of the room. They were piled up inside one another to where, ordinarily, a ceiling would be. Instead, halfway up the wall, a balcony jutted out of the walls, about a foot in width, running all the way around the shop. There were shelves built into the walls up there with rows upon rows of assorted potion ingredients on them. They went from the balcony to the ceiling there were the only potion ingredients on display in the shop. A ladder was the only visible way to get up to this balcony and it was placed behind the counter, just in front of a burgundy black satin curtain. As in the other shops, Severus had interviewed behind this curtain.

He hadn't been looking forward to this interview. The only reason he had really applied was because he had an extraordinary skill at potion making and did always like the feeling of being better at something than someone else. Making potions to sell for those who were obviously too inadequate at the skill to make them themselves would be rather satisfying but he had set his eye on something a bit more involved with the dark arts. What he hadn't expected, was to enjoy it as much as he had. It was less of an interview and more of a chance for the Mulpeppers store owner to see what he could do. He watched him make a Bloodroot Potion which would cause the drinkers blood to be infected with a deadly virus. He had never made it before but still, brewed it to such accuracy that Mulpepper had given him a congratulatory nod after testing it on a rat which paled immediately and became slow-moving, affected to an extreme by the poison. After this, Mulpepper had all but guaranteed Severus the job and said he would be in contact with him within a few days.

Now finished with all his interviews, he was made his way out of Knockturn Alley to meet Wilkes. Anyone who would see the two boys meeting up would probably just assume that they were friends from Hogwarts, getting together to do nothing more than hang out. But Wilkes was the last person in the world that Severus would want to hang out with. Well, one of the last. There were a few people who would top the list before him but he was still pretty high up there. He was a little slow sometimes in grasping ideas and plans, something which Severus didn't particularly have the patience for. He was slightly taller than him too and, often without thinking about it, loomed over him when in one of his blunders, his brown mop of hair falling over his face as if styled in a backwards mullet. Wilkes had also decided that, since leaving Hogwarts, he would try to grow a beard. It didn't suit him and if it wasn't embarrassing for him, it was embarrassing for anyone who dared to be seen with him.

Severus wouldn't want to meet up with him for social reasons, nor any of the Slytherins from Hogwarts. He had no want nor need to invest in a friendship with them, ever only buying into the friendship concept for Lily and look how that had turned out. He didn't believe friendship was the way to go with his fellow Slytherins from Hogwarts. They believed in the same ideals, yes, but that didn't give him an unexplainable need to go and buy friendship bracelets or anything of the sort. It did make for a good colleague relationship but nothing more. He had wanted nothing more from them in Hogwarts and he wanted nothing more from them outside of Hogwarts. No, Severus was meeting up with Wilkes for business purposes.

He had been instructed by Voldemort at the last little meeting of the death eaters, (and it had been little), to find out the meaning of the word Marsket. It had been found written on the file which Lucius Malfoy had forced the Minister of Magic's former assistant to snoop in by ways of the imperius curse. The curse was lifted before Lucius could extract all of the information from him but he had managed to inform Voldemort and the rest of the death eaters gathered that day that the word was a name. Whoever possessed this name was somehow linked to the muggle Prime Minister and Severus had been assigned the task of finding out how this was so. He wasn't told exactly why he needed to find out this information, not being privy to that yet, but he did know that it was all linked into a larger plan that Voldemort wanted to put in motion. And apparently, this was the type of plan that would need time, dedication and, above all, research. And research was something that Severus just so happened to be good at.

So he had arranged today to be the day he did that research. His allocated partner in all of this, Wilkes, was to meet him outside the Leaky Cauldron where they would head down into Muggle London together on their way to the Ministry. Once they had gotten in, (through the rather disgusting way of toilet transportation), they would use whatever means they needed to break into three offices in the building; the Ministers, the records office and the head aurors office. Their only instruction in this work, from Voldemort himself, was to be discreet. He had been very insistent on that which was why Severus had decided to do this task in the afternoon rather than breaking in at night. There would be many people around and many distractions. He would be able to slip in unnoticed because, after all, these witches and wizard were far too engrossed in their own work and lives to notice two seemingly harmless boys wandering around. And it wasn't as if they could be accused of breaking in after hours.

Severus made his way down Diagon Alley and through the swarming crowds. He had no idea why it was so busy. Hogwarts letters wouldn't arrive to students for a few days, (N.E.W.T grades arriving at the same time for those who had graduated), so it obviously had nothing to do with shopping for school supplies. All he could think of was whether there was a sale at one of the shops or whether there was a Quidditch game on that day. Lots of people often stopped off in Diagon Alley before a Quidditch game to buy snacks or paraphernalia. Either way, Severus didn't care too much for the crowd.

He squeezed past a couple of older wizards in long dusty robes, talking far louder than they needed to, and once again saw the woman who had grimaced at him outside the sweet shop earlier. He spat on the floor again, just to tick her off once more which he did successfully, and carried on down the cobbled pathway. He quickly hurried passed Madam Malkin's robes and dodged past a couple sat outside Rosa Lee Teabag's, kissing intensely, but outside of the Magical Menagarie, he lost his steam ending up bumping shoulders with someone.

'Watch it!' he spat at them, not bothering to care that he had actually hurt who he had bumped into. But to be honest, he wouldn't have cared anyway.

He had bumped into Remus Lupin, fresh and tender from a full moon, but looking a lot finer than he had done at Hogwarts, owing to the fact that James' mum had bought him some new clothes. 'Sorry Snape.' he said, noticing it was him.

Severus scowled at him muttering, 'Filthy werewolf' as he shoved his hands into his pockets, shoulders slightly hunched and walked away.

It was just his look to run into one of the marauders on a day he was supposed to be doing something important, on a day he couldn't allow him mind to wonder to places he wish he didn't know. Bumping into Remus would have a knock on effect and he would immediately start to think of the other three boys he despised. He would hate them in his head, wondering over all the things that they had done to him during their Hogwarts education. Then he would stop on James Potter because he was the one who had bullied him most of all, jealous of Severus' past friendship with Lily. And then his brain would stick to the one subject: Lily. He would be hard set to get his mind off of her after that, becoming lost in his memories, but he tried his hardest and attempted to move past it as he focused on the task he had been set.

He saw Wilkes outside of the Leaky Cauldron, his patchy beard filling out a little bit, the stubble look covering a large portion of his squashed face. He nodded at Severus when he approached him and then looked around suspiciously as if he were afraid of being caught with him. It was something which caused Severus to roll his eyes. He didn't particularly want nor need Wilkes' help but nonetheless he had it. He had to make use of him somehow, (for it was his assignment and he would be the one to complete it). Wilkes could probably stand guard and warn Severus if someone was coming whilst he snooped through files. But that was all Severus was planning on letting him do.

The two boys set of through the Leaky Cauldron and into muggle London on their way to the toilets which served as the entrance to the Ministry. If Severus had had access to a fireplace connected to the floo network which he could use for this purpose, he would have used it in an instant. It was much more appealing than flushing yourself down a toilet and it would be less stressful as well. He would just be able to get there in a flash. He wouldn't have to act like he belonged or worry if Wilkes was acting like he belonged too. Being caught wouldn't be too much of an issue really as the security around that entrance was rather lapse, a large oversight by the ministry considering the delicate climate of the wizarding world. It made it easier for the two boys to get in but Severus still had doubts they wouldn't be able to. He wished he could apparate into the Ministry but for some bizarre reason, they had rules against that. If they tried they would be apprehended immediately and their task would be left unfulfilled. The toilets were their only way in.

When they reached them, both Wilkes and Severus went into separate cubicles and flushed themselves down. Neither had said a word on the journey there, not even a cursory greeting as they had met. Severus didn't want to talk to Wilkes and Wilkes wasn't really keen on the idea either. So the first time they spoke was when they arrived simultaneously in the ministry, fresh from the flush. Wilkes was the first to break the quiet between them. He needed to know what to do.

'So what's the plan?' he asked Severus as they made their way through the hustle bustle of the main floor of the underground building. They were heading towards the lifts.

'We have to hit the records office, the Ministers office and the head of the auror departments office.' Severus murmured to him, 'I'll go into the offices and you'll stand guard.'

'Why do I have to stand guard?' Wilkes snapped mutedly, 'I'm just a big a part of this as you are. My dedication is just as strong.'

'I was given this assignment, not you.' Severus retorted.

'We were both-'

'No.' Severus growled, stopping and turning to face Wilkes. They had reached the atrium which was rounded and filled with grate covered lifts. The everyday working life of the ministry hurried past them, taking no notice of their conversation, taking no notice of them, and just carrying on with their jobs and errands

'No.' Severus repeated, 'I was part of this a lot longer than you were. I was recruited first and I am far more loyal than you will ever be.'

'Recruitment time doesn't count.' Wilkes said through gritted teeth, anger upon his face.

'I think it does.' Severus hissed, 'I have been at this much longer than you have. You may be the same age as me, you may even be as loyal as you say, but I was given this task. And by the Dark Lord himself. You were given the task of assisting me. If you don't want to do that then you can go. I'm sure that that will show the loyalty you're so desperate to display.' he finished sarcastically, testing Wilkes and assessing his reaction.

Wilkes steadied his gaze and frowned moodily at Severus. He seemed to be having an internal battle with himself, his growing beard twitching with his decision. 'Fine.' he answered measuredly doing his best to stay calm. He wouldn't be the one to disappoint Voldemort. And if there research came up fruitless then he wouldn't be the one to blame. Or at least it would be proportionally less.

The pair of them stepped into an open lift which was hardly full. There was a wizard with an auburn robe on, reading the daily prophet with a serious look on his face. There was a woman with a sour expression and a kingfisher robe, clutching a matching purse in one hand and a small child's hand in the other. The child, a little girl, was crying, snot dribbling down his face, mingling with her tears. Then there were owls, holding memos and letters ready to deliver, perching on the rails that ran around the top of the lift. There was one sat just above the crying child who seemed to be that way because the bird had released itself onto the little girls shoulder. Severus gritted his teeth and bared the unbelievably annoying and jolted trip in the lift to the floor of the Ministry which housed both the records office and the Minister of Magic's office.

When he and Wilkes got out of the elevator, the other three people in there to engrossed in either the paper or being in foul moods to notice or care which floor they had exited on, they made a plan. Severus was going to sneak into the records office first and snoop through those files first. If anyone was in there, they would take whatever measures they needed to allow them to complete their task. If their search was unfruitful in there, they would move onto the Minister of Magic's office and rummage through the files in there, once again taking the necessary precautions that would permit them to get the job done. They would only head down to the head aurors office if it was needed as it was less likely that the information they were looking for would be in there.

They made their way down a long corridor, plastered in cream, and to a wooden door with a plaque labelling it 'records'. Severus tried the handle and discovered it was locked. He withdrew his wand from his black robes and looked down either side of the hallway. When he was sure nobody was coming, he whispered _alohamora _and unlocked the door. Then he turned to Wilkes.

'Put a disillusionment charm on yourself and try to blend into the wall.' he instructed in a whisper, 'If anyone comes, knock on the door. As soon as they come in the room, I'll stun them. Then you need to get them out the way quickly and go back to stand guard. Got it?'

'So I follow them in?' Wilkes clarified, with grimace, not happy with the mediocre part he was to play in all this.

'Yes.' Severus replied through gritted teeth.

Begrudgingly, Wilkes accepted the plan and cast a disillusionment charm on himself, camouflage pouring over him like slow running milk. As soon as he was placed strategically against the wall, Severus took one last precautionary glance around the hallway before opening the door and slipping inside. When he saw what greeted him, he deflated and rolled his eyes in an irritated fashion.

The room was huge. Large wooden cases stretched down the length of it, arranged in twelve aisles across the room. The shelves of files reached the ceiling and from first glance, there seemed to be no clear organisational system. It would take forever to go through each file if he couldn't find out how it was all arranged. He looked around him to see if there was any indication of strategy but saw nothing that could help him out. He did the first thing that came to his mind that might help him and attempted to summon the file he was looking for, the one containing the information about Marsket, whoever that was, but nothing happened. After that unsuccessful idea, he had no choice but to start searching by hand; a long and tedious task.

He was in the records room for a grand total of three hours and come up completely empty. Six times Wilkes had peered around the door to see if Severus was finished and all six times, Severus sent out a stunning curse at him, something they had planned if someone entered the room. Thankfully, nobody else had decided to enter the room during the lengthy search that Severus had undertaken so he hadn't sent the spell out to anyone else but Wilkes. And after the second time it had happened, Wilkes had learnt to duck the spell.

Severus exited the room with an irritated grimace and paper cuts on his hands from leafing through countless unorganised files. He wasn't in the mood anymore and just wanted to get this task over and done with. He huffed and scowled as he told Wilkes that they were now going to the Minister of Magic's office. When Wilkes asked if they were to wait until the Ministers assistant went on her six o'clock break, Severus' hand twitched towards his wand and he had to restrain himself from intentionally cursing him. It took all of his effort to calmly tell him that there would be no need for that and that they would place the girl under the imperius curse. If she resisted then they would just knock her out. Wilkes seemed to be ok with that plan as it gave him a bigger role than just to keep guard. So the pair of them made their way down the cream coated hallway and up to the grandest door in the corridor, each eager in their own way to get started. When they reached it, they both repeated their suspicious glancing around the hallway before hurriedly opening the door and entering the office, alarming the girl inside.

'Hey what are you-'

'_Imperio.' _Wilkes said immediately, casting the unforgivable curse at the brunette girl, her face quickly relaxing into submission. 'What now?' he asked Severus.

Severus rolled his eyes at what he viewed as incompetence from Wilkes. He looked around the little room, one which was clearly a small foyer for visitors to wait before meeting with the Minister of Magic in his main office which, presumably, was behind the second door. He grabbed a chair from a line of four against the wall facing the secretary's desk and jammed it underneath the handle on the Ministers door. He repeated this with the door they had entered from and ensured that both were inoperable. Then he turned to the girl.

'Where are the files kept in this place?' he asked her.

Wilkes told her to answer Severus which she did gladly, the effects of the imperius curse making sure she was unable to make her own decisions.

'Behind the painting.' she answered almost robotically, gesturing to the painting which was hung behind her desk.

Severus walked over to it and yanked it roughly off of its hook to reveal four large drawers embedded into the wall behind it. Each drawer was labelled with letters of the alphabet, listing whether the files inside were organised A to G, H to N and so on. He opened the draw with the label H to N and yanked it out. It slid out about a foot and then stopped, only revealing files organised under H. Severus triple checked to make sure this was the case before turning to the girl and demanding that she reveal the M files to him. After minimal persuasion from Wilkes, the brunette waved her wand over the draw. All the H files were miraculously replaced with files organised in M. Severus began his search.

He started at the back and began to work his way forwards but, after realising that even the sub-sectioned folders were organised alphabetically, he switched to flicking through the ones at the front. That was when he made real progress. Within minutes he had found a file titled 'Marsket -[Confidential]'. He pulled it out of the draw, quickly swiped papers and quills and things off of the secretary's desk and slapped the file down onto the table. He then opened it and looked inside, skimming the file until he found what he was looking for. And he found it all. Marsket was not just a name. Marsket was a family. A wizarding family with the most insignificant and obscurely crucial link to the muggle prime minister. It was golden blackmail material.

* * *

**Thank you for reading!**

**Review if you like but you don't have to.**

**My next update will be on 30th May 2014. I shall try to do an earlier one but I can't promise anything as my writing time will be cut down owing to the fact that I have to be a grown up and work for the summer :( Oh well.**

**Galindaba**


	7. Chapter 6

**Hey people! :)**

**So this is my 30th of May update :) been settling into my new work schedule and I think it means that I should be able to post chapters regularly over the summer so YAY! :) Hope you enjoy this chapter. I know that a few questions were asked about this when I was writing Five Minutes so this ones for you! (I hope it's not too cheesy! :p )**

**Here we go, Chapter Six**

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**Chapter Six**

'Well I have to be back at mine for nine tomorrow because my dad is having a wardrobe delivered to the house to go into Petunias old room and no one's gonna be there to sign for it meaning, I have to be.' Lily said to James as they made their way across the grounds of the Potter mansion. She didn't tell him that she would also have to sneak into the house because her parents thought she would be back that night. They wouldn't know that she had other plans. All they would know is that she had signed for the wardrobe in the morning and had gotten home just after they went to bed and thought it best not to wake them. She had her lie down. She just had to make it convincing.

It was the hottest day of the summer so far, despite it being the end of August, and the sun was beaming down like fire. However, the sun did make for a nice setting around the grounds and gardens of the mansion, the light brightening the colours of the flowers and making the stream water glisten like diamonds. The fruit in the orchard was ripe and the animals that inhabited the Potters grounds were frolicking like there was no tomorrow. Lily was pushing her old pedal bike - which she had brought with her from home to teach Sirius how to ride - and James was walking next to her with his hands shoved in his pockets as they so often were. Lily was determined that this day not go to waste. She was going to make the best of it. Today would be a special day for her, she was determined of it.

She and James were heading over to the outhouse where Sirius worked on his bike. He apparently had finished it a few days before hand on his birthday. At least, that was what he had told Lily in a thank you reply to the birthday card she had sent him. He told her that until she taught him to ride a bike, he would be spending most of his time admiring his handy work. The one time he had tried to ride it, he fell off, unable to keep his balance or get the motorcycle started at all. So, seeing as Lily had offered once before, he had written to her and asked if she could teach him to ride a bike, hoping that in some way shape or form, it would help him figure out how to ride his own engine powered one.

'So he can shove her in it?' James asked Lily, continuing with the conversation he and Lily had been having as they made their way over to Sirius. He was trying to convince her to stay the night and believed he was failing at it. So instead, James being James, decided to make a few jokes to ease what he thought could become an uncomfortable situation. 'Cause I've got to say, I may not be your sisters biggest fan but locking her in a wardrobe doesn't seem to be the best way to go.' he laughed, running a hand through his messy, slightly sweaty hair before returning it to his pocket.

'What?' Lily wondered, confused for a moment before grasping what James had said as a joke. 'No.' she clarified, 'He's turning Petunias room into a guest room. We painted it the other month. I told you that.'

'What colour?' James asked.

'Huh?' Lily replied, now confused as to what James had turned onto in their conversation.

'What colour did you paint her room?' James said.

'Why?' Lily queried, stopping her bike and grinding to a halt to look at James in curiosity.

James followed suit. 'Just trying to seem interested.' he shrugged.

Lily paused for a second, a small testing smile appearing on her face. 'Cream.' she answered.

'And I'm over it.' James sighed.

They began to walk again. It was on days like this that James wished the gardens to the Potters property were smaller, less of a trek to walk across. He either wished that or that he and Sirius hadn't blown up the outhouse that was closest to the house. They would have been there by now if they hadn't done that, he and Lily having passed by the derelict remains only moment ago. But unfortunately, they had blown it up, a couple of summers ago, and it hadn't been repaired, the consequences of it was this now being a long hike across the grounds to the outhouse where Sirius was waiting for them. They could have apparated if Lily didn't have her bike with her.

He trudged along next to Lily, stealing glances at her as often as he could without losing track of where he was walking. It was extraordinarily hot today and Lily had dressed accordingly; a short but flowing white skirt and a sky blue top that wrapped itself to her flat stomach teasingly. Her hair was braided loosely over her shoulder, the deep red of it shining in the sunlight. If it hadn't been hot outside today, James was sure he would have felt the heat anyway. It took all his energy to stop himself from just standing still and ogling her, his mind drifting to unsavoury places. But, nonetheless, he was doing his best. He still wanted her to stay over though. Little did he know she had already made up her mind on that matter.

'Look, why don't you just stay here tonight and then we can go back to yours in the morning, sign for the wardrobe, shove your sister in it and then go out to lunch.' he suggested with a grin, a mischievous glint in his hazel eyes.

'You do realise that you made up the shoving my sister into a wardrobe thing right.' Lily stated, knowing that if James continued with this train of thought, he would actually convince himself that the suggestion wasn't his and it was an instruction they needed to carry out.

'That mean we can't do it?' James laughed, turning to smile at her.

'No.' Lily said, smiling herself, a playful hint in her expression as she looked him dead in the eyes. 'We can do it.' she insinuated before turning her smile into one of mock innocence and carrying on over to the outhouse which they had just about reached.

James' reply was delayed a little in reaction. His throat had very suddenly gone dry as he thought he picked up on a different proposition in her words. 'What?' he asked hoarsely to no one, still standing where Lily had left him to join Sirius by the brick structure with her push bike. Did he hear her right or was he reading far too much into this? He didn't know. So he shook it off, deciding not to dwell on it, thinking it couldn't possibly be what he thought, and went over to join Sirius and Lily in the outhouse.

When he got there Sirius was stood frowning at the bicycle that Lily had brought with her and flicking the black leather seat unenthusiastically.

'Hey you wanted to learn.' Lily reminded him as he started to sigh disinterestedly.

'I know but…' Sirius trailed off, looking wistfully over to his own bike which stood next to the wall magnificently, a kick stand holding it in place. There was a large presumably once white sheet underneath it. He looked back to Lily's bike which seemed boring in comparison. 'It's small.' He moaned.

'It's a push bike.' Lily pointed out to him.

'I know but-'

'Oh my god Sirius you _have_ to stop saying that!' Lily warned, 'Look, you don't have to learn.'

'I know but…' Sirius said purposefully, his only intention to annoy Lily with a third repeat of those words. 'Fine. How's it gonna help me ride my own bike?'

'Well,' Lily started, looking over to Sirius' huge bike and then back to her little one, 'It'll help you with balance. To ride either of them you're gonna need balance. It'll help you judge weight, distance, timing. Safety on a bike. Learning how to stop using the breaks. Basic-'

'Ok! Ok!' Sirius said, rolling his eyes and taking the bike off of her, wheeling it outside the same way she had wheeled it in, 'I get it. It'll help. Now let's get started.'

Lily shook her head fondly and went to follow Sirius outside only, she was stopped by James. He took her hand and pulled her back into him.

'What did you mean?' he asked her, searching her eyes for recognition, remembrance, anything. His decision not to dwell on what she had said only lasting five minutes. He kind of wanted to know now.

'What do you mean, what did I mean?' Lily asked, knowing exactly what he meant but playing dumb for her own amusement, 'About the bike?'

'No not about the bike.' James said dropping her hand and gripping her top just below her waist, 'Before. When we were talking before. Before.'

'Before what?' Lily queried beginning to laugh at the frustratedly anxious way James was acting after one sentence of powerful suggestion.

James sighed, 'Lily-'

'LILY!' Sirius yelled over to her from about ten yards away, interrupting the couples conversation, 'You gonna teach me or what?'

'I should go teach him.' Lily said softly to James, trying and failing to hide the smile she had on her face in amusement from the way James was acting. She released his hands from her top, smoothed it down and walked over to Sirius.

'For a start you're sitting on it backwards.' James heard her say as she went. When he turned to look at her, she was standing next to Sirius who was sitting on the bike, (the right way now), and supposedly telling him what to do. James couldn't be sure though as he couldn't actually hear her from this distance as she was speaking at a normal volume. He exhaled quickly and leant with his shoulder against the frame of the entrance to the outhouse, his arms folded and legs crossed.

He didn't know why this was playing on his mind so much, that was, apart from the obvious reasons: he was a teenage boy, hormones were raging in his mind, beautiful girlfriend, no parental supervision, (at least for a couple of days), and a huge mansion full of beds. But he had managed to push all of that down for almost a year now because he didn't want to be one of those guys who pushed his girlfriend into doing something she didn't want to. So far he had managed not to do that and be the perfect boyfriend. Even when it seemed like things were heading that way, like during the Christmas break the year before, he had managed to abstain, not give into his desires, and stop what was happening. So he didn't know why now these things had started to bubble to the surface and why he was having such a hard time squashing them again. One little possible insinuation from Lily and his mind and body were acting as if he had been given a green light, raring to go.

He tried to shake it and think of something else. After all, he wasn't even sure if Lily had meant what she had said in the way he had taken it. He had to respect the fact that she still might not be ready. Thinking of something else would be the first way to start. He thought of the fact that their N.E.W.T results were scheduled to be out today and what marks he may have received on his examinations. But somehow, through excitement of good results, his mind wandered back to Lily. So he thought about the auror training programme he had applied for and whether he would be accepted into that. It was rather prestigious. But his mind once again, seemingly in overdrive on the topic, wandered back to Lily. There had to be something he could think about that wouldn't have him returning to that place. It took him a few minutes but he found something to think of, and in this thought, he didn't have to abstain from thinking about Lily altogether.

He pushed himself up from the door frame and walked over to Lily and Sirius. Sirius was looking rather bored and was amusing himself by moving the gears gauge up and down on Lily's bike whilst Lily tried to explain to him the different parts of the bike. She didn't really notice until he rang the bell and even then, she didn't lose where she was in speaking to him, she simply slapped his hand, (which was still on the bell), and carried on.

'...and you make it move by putting your feet on the pedals and-'

'My feet have been on these pedals for the six hours that you've been yammering on for and I've not moved an inch.' Sirius exaggerated, stamping his right foot on the pedal it was resting on.

'Geez you're so dramatic!' Lily laughed.

'I am not dramatic!' Sirius retorted, over emphasising every word before turning to James and asking in a whiny voice, 'I'm not dramatic am I Prongs?'

'Err…yeah. You kinda are.' James replied, shrugging when Sirius looked aghast at him.

'Thanks a lot!' Sirius huffed, turning away from him and folding his arms, his feet on the floor so that he could balance himself on the bike. He was learning very quickly that it wasn't that easy.

'No problem.' James smirked, brushing it to the side so he could ask Lily, 'Hey, how was dinner with my mum the other day. I didn't ask.'

If there was one thing that could keep his mind off of Lily and other things, then this was it. He didn't dare to think about such things in his mums presence and, even though they were just talking about her, (or at least going to be), it still made him think twice before allowing his mind to wonder off. He knew his mum would be rather relaxed around this topic, nothing like Lily had told him her dad was, but it was still a subject you didn't like to broach with your parents. And that stretched from doing, talking or thinking about sex. So speaking about the meal that Jane and Lily had would be a safe subject to keep James focused. He was sure of it.

'Dinner?' Lily asked, placing Sirius' hands on the handle bars properly, making sure they were in the middle of the handles so as to make it easier to steer, 'I didn't have dinner with your mum. Sirius keep your hands in the middle of the bars!'

'I don't want to hold the middle I want to be a rebel and hold the end.' Sirius said stubbornly, moving his hands back to the end of the handle bars, holding them with only his thumb, fore and middle fingers.

'Yeah, well, rebels fall off bikes and die.' Lily said bluntly.

'You're very cheery.' Sirius grumbled, putting his hands back to where Lily had placed them at least three times.

'Well when you're trying to teach an idiot, happiness goes out the window.' Lily quipped quickly. 'Did you mean lunch?' Lily asked James.

'I could do with some lunch.' Sirius piped in.

'It's eleven o'clock.' Lily pointed out.

'So?' Sirius replied.

'Yeah lunch.' James said. Of course it was lunch. It was during Jane Potters lunch break. Just an hour. Still an hour was plenty of time to ask some pretty intense questions. 'How'd it go?' he asked again.

'It was fine.' Lily shrugged with no expansion.

'Did you call me an idiot?' Sirius wondered, Lily's words only just beginning to register to him.

'Yes.' Lily stated. 'Now, I'm gonna hold the bike and walk along side you so that you don't fall off.'

'Ok.' Sirius said, leaning forwards and preparing himself for is first ever bike ride.

'All you've got to do is hold the handle bars straight and move the pedals with your feet.' Lily explained.

'Just fine?' James queried. There had to be more to the story.

'Yeah. It was fine.' Lily repeated to James before turning back to Sirius. She held the bike by the back of the seat and onto one of the handle bars for extra support. She highly doubted she could keep the bike steady and in motion if she didn't for Sirius was a lot heavier than he looked. 'Off you go.' she said to him when she was sure she had hold of his weight.

If Lily expected the bike to move, then she was wrong. It stayed extremely stationary and, if anything, more weight was put into Lily's hands. She was having a hard time holding it up. This was not how this was meant to go and she had to wonder why. Looking down at Sirius' feet, she realised.

'Sirius!' she exasperated, 'You're meant to push the pedals with your feet and make them go round. It's how the bike _moves. _Running up and down on the pedals isn't going to make an ape of a difference.'

'What do apes have to do with it?' Sirius asked, scrunching up his face in question, and placing his feet on the ground again to keep himself from falling off of the bike whilst Lily released her grasp.

'Just pedal the bike properly.' Lily sighed, holding onto the bike again.

'Ok, ok.' Sirius said, rolling his eyes.

'When you say fine…' James chimed in again, folding his arms and trying to get Lily to talk to him instead of paying attention to Sirius who, in James' opinion, would never have a long enough attention span to learn to ride a push bike anyway. He swore he didn't have this much trouble trying to get her to speak to him when she hated him. 'What do you mean?' he continued.

Lily let go of the bike causing Sirius to wobble a bit before steadying himself again.

'Warning would be nice.' Sirius muttered causing Lily to push his head to the side fondly.

'Try and balance on the bike.' she said to him before walking over to James, taking his hand, and leading him back into the little outhouse when Sirius' monstrous bike was still residing. 'What's up?' she asked him with a false innocence about her. She hoped she knew what was wrong with him. She hoped he was still thinking about her comment from only minutes ago. He couldn't have bypassed it too quickly. At least she hoped he couldn't.

'I was just wondering what you and my mum talked about at your lunch.' he said, shoving his hands in his pockets and shrugging his shoulders. He looked like a sullen teenage boy.

'She just wanted to get to know me a bit better so it wouldn't be awkward when I come round.' Lily said.

'Oh.' James said, a little shocked at the answer. He had half expected his mum to drill Lily about their relationship and what was going on between them. To attempt to find out more about their personal life. 'That was it?'

Lily nodded.

'So she didn't ask you if we were…'

'Would it matter?' Lily asked, a smile playing deliciously around her lips.

'Well…' James thought. He couldn't read her expression properly. She was smiling. Did that mean anything or was he making it up in his head? Perhaps he had misjudged what she had said earlier. Maybe he was just creating a double entendre in his mind because that was what he wanted to hear. He had been waiting a whole year. He deserved a medal really. But maybe her comment hadn't really meant anything. And besides, hadn't he started this line of conversation to allow himself to retrieve his mind from the gutter? Wasn't this supposed to be turning his thoughts away from it? If Lily wasn't ready for that step yet then that was fine. He supposed could wait a while longer. Besides, this was confusing him. He didn't like hidden messages or secret meanings. It was frustrating. He answered her question. 'I suppose not. It's not like there's anything to tell.'

'Yet.' Lily added.

Well, now James was completely befuddled. His head was screaming at him to get a clear answer because he didn't think he could deal any more with a possible situation.

'Ok Lily, I'm completely confused.' he confessed, 'You keep saying things that could be double entendres or could have hidden meanings and its really frustrating to me. I'm trying my hardest not to jump to conclusions, conclusions that, to be perfectly honest with you, I've wanted for a long time now. I want to be considerate of you but if I don't know what you mean or where you're at then I can't be. What exactly are you saying? What do you want?'

He was surprised to see her still smiling, almost smirking at her handiwork and the fact that she had confused him to breaking point. And quite quickly as well.

'James,' she said, taking a step towards him. She rested one arm over his shoulder and placed the other on his chest. She could feel his heart racing ten to the dozen beneath his shirt. 'I'm not going to say a word. You can take whatever connotation you want from anything I've said today.' she whispered, her hands grasping his shirt and creasing it beneath her fingers, 'I'll let you decide.' And with that, she stood up on her tips toes, left a lingering kiss on his cheek and walked back over to Sirius who was trying, (and failing) to balance on the bike.

For ten more minutes, James watched Lily struggling to teach Sirius how to ride a bike, witnessing Sirius fall to the ground more than once. However, the spectacle before him wasn't nearly as amusing as it should have been to him. Usually, seeing Lily become rather frustrated was a little funny and familiar to him. It reminded him so much of the times he used to badger her to go out with him in their earlier years of Hogwarts. He liked to remember her from back then and the way she used to become angry at him, calling him names and yelling. Sure when it was happening it rather upset him and for days afterwards he would be depressed that she had once again turned down his offer to take her out, but it was also nice to reminisce on those times and think about how their relationship had evolved so much. It was kind of remarkable really.

Sirius falling over, let alone off of a bike, should have been hilarious for him. He would have usually taken the piss out of him for days on end, re-enacting the scene and telling people about it. It would all be in good fun of course and Sirius himself would have found it rather amusing, loving the attention it gave him and over dramatizing how hurt he was by the whole thing. It would give him an excuse to bandage his arm up or something of the sort and vie for the sympathy vote from girls, attempting to give them ideas on how they could cheer him up. But at the minute, James really didn't feel like laughing at Sirius or telling anyone about his embarrassing failure of falling off a bike.

Instead, for ten straight minutes, James watched Lily. He couldn't help it. She had basically given him the green light, (or at least, she thought he had), and he couldn't help but think of what that meant. For one he would no longer be a virgin, neither would she. But it wouldn't be just sex. They loved each other and James was sure that she was the person he would spend his life with. He was infatuated with her and she would be the only person he would ever be with in that way, he was sure of it. But his predictions, hopes and expectations for this happening, staying in a committed relationship with Lily and eventually marrying her would have to be self-contained. If he ever told his friends, (mainly Sirius), that he had plans to be with Lily forever he would be taken the piss out of for being so soppy. He didn't particularly want that. So he kept it in and let his mind wander to the night until Remus appeared by his side and interrupted his thoughts.

'What you doing?' Remus asked him, following his eye line to Lily and Sirius. He took no notice of the expression on James' face and instead, focused on the spectacle that was before him. 'Oh good Merlin!' he laughed, 'Why didn't you call me? You know I love to see Sirius make an idiot of himself.'

'Ha, yeah.' James croaked, his throat a bit parched, 'Sorry.'

'You all right?' Remus asked, noticing the dryness of James' words and, now, noticing his appearance; a little stunned and not all together with it. He looked in a constant state of shock.

James stroked his throat and nodded his head. 'Yeah I'm fine.' he said, moving his hand from his neck and running it through his hair. 'I'm just a bit thirsty. Gonna go get some water, you want anything?'

'No I'm good.' Remus replied, not believing him. He watched James walk away a little concerned, especially when James kept turning his head back every five minutes as if checking his friends were still there. It was a little odd.

Remus walked over to Lily and Sirius, a laugh escaping his lips when Sirius' foot slipped off of the pedal and scraped the skin down the side of his calf.

'Shit!' Sirius swore, clambering off of the bike and hopping around on one foot in agony. He stopped and looked down at it to see the damage he had done. He noticed an array of small dots of blood creeping to the surface. It was stinging. 'What you laughing at?' he snapped at Remus when he noticed he was there and laughing at him.

'I'm not laughing.' Remus defended, not even attempting to hide the chuckle that was still bubbling in his chest. He ignored Sirius as he pulled a face at him and turned to Lily. 'Is James ok d'ya know?' he asked thinking that, out of all of them at the mansion at the moment, Lily would be the one who would know why James had looked so dumbfounded.

'Why?' Lily asked, folding her arms innocently and looking over to where she had though James was standing. She was disappointed to see he had left. She had felt his eyes boring into her for the best part of ten minutes. It was a surprise then, that she hadn't noticed his disappearance. 'Where'd he go?' she asked.

'Inside to get a drink.' Remus answered. He looked at Lily a little suspiciously. He had a feeling she knew what was wrong with James but was reluctant to tell. It was probably something personal between the two of them though, thought Remus, so he probably shouldn't pry. He changed the subject instead. 'So what you trying to do?'

'Teach the village idiot how to ride a bike.' Lily answered, gesturing over to Sirius who was now lying on the ground with his injured leg in the air, vying for attention. 'It's not going so well.' Lily muttered.

'That's because it's hard!' Sirius whined.

'It can't be that hard.' Remus commented, 'Looks easy.'

'You try it then!' Sirius challenged, sitting up straight but remarkably keeping his leg in the air.

'Fine.' Remus sighed. He walked over to the pedal bike that Sirius had abandoned haphazardly on the grass so that he could be dramatic and picked it up. He studied the bicycle for a good few seconds before nodding to himself and swinging his leg over the frame so that he was straddling the leather seat. Then, he gripped both handle bars determinedly, put one foot on a pedal, put the other foot on the other pedal and, almost in slow motion, fell to the ground. He landed on his side, the bike still between his legs and took a pause before saying 'Ow'.

Sirius burst into peels of loud, over-the-top laughter, his leg obviously better now as he brought it to the ground without thinking. He was slapping his hand against it, beating out his amusement at Remus' fall.

Lily bit her lip, trying so hard to hold in her own giggles. Remus had been so confident about it and, truth be told, she knew he wouldn't be able to do it. Riding a bike wasn't a skill you just had, it had to be taught and nurtured. She should have told him upright that he would have fallen off but, a part of her just wanted to see it happen. It was rather funny. Still, she did her best not to laugh at his misfortune. She steadied her breathing and, instead, just said, 'You know, most muggle children can ride a bike at age seven.'

Sirius had paused when Lily was speaking but, after hearing her words, he began to laugh again and, this time, louder. He laughed until he had laughed so much, that sound was no longer available to him. It took a whack around the back of the head from Lily to try and force him to shut up and even then he just spluttered and smothered his chuckles.

Lily went forwards to help Remus up, putting the bike to one side and taking his hand to drag him to standing. She brushed off the light brown t-shirt that James' mum had obviously kitted him out with along with the blue washed jeans that still had that look of 'store-bought' about them. Now managing to hide her laughter better, (better than Sirius anyway), she made sure he was ok, finding out that he had probably only bruised his hip.

Whilst Lily was picking up the bike and explaining to Remus the basics of riding a bike, just as she had to Sirius earlier, James' small rufus legged owl Sox landed on the ground next to Sirius, placed down a note and flew off. She would have landed on his shoulder but she didn't much like him. Still, she had delivered the note which Sirius picked up instantly, (after kicking the air that Sox had just vacated), and read it, realising it was from James who was just inside the mansion.

He looked up and smirked to himself, enjoying the fact that Lily had gotten Remus onto the bike and was now holding the back whilst he wobbled along in a zigzagged line. It was amusing already but it was about to get better.

'Oh Lily!' Sirius belled, just to catch her attention before reaching the crux of the note from James, 'N.E.W.T results are here!'

Lily took a sharp intake of breath and, letting go of the back of the bike, turned to face Sirius who waved James' note at her. However, no sooner than she had turned away, she heard a dull thud on the grass behind her as Remus lost complete balance and fell to the ground.

Lily winced. 'Sorry.' she said, hurrying to help him up once again. She grabbed his elbow and pulled him up, not particularly being much help as she was shaking the entire time, wracked with nerves over the fact that her N.E.W.T results were waiting in the mansion for her at that very moment. She was excitedly anxious, her entire future in an envelope in the kitchen, something that Remus picked up on. He told her to go ahead and that he was fine and, after literally no persuasion, Lily raced off into the kitchen.

She found James sat at the table studying his own results with a satisfied smirk. He had obviously done well. She saw her own results, the envelope which contained them lying haphazardly in the middle of the table. Fearfully she picked them up and sat down next to him, catching his attention.

'You ok?' he asked her casually.

'No.' Lily replied. 'What did you get?'

'E's in Herbology and Potions and O's in Charms, Defence and Transfiguration.' he replied, folding up the parchment that had his grades written on it, stuffing it back into the envelope and throwing it without any particular care, back into the middle of the table. 'You gonna open yours?'

'Yeah.' Lily whispered.

James paused. 'Today?'

Lily paused herself and looked down at the letter in her hands. Suddenly, she began to ramble, slowly standing up as she did. 'You know I don't think I will. It doesn't seem like a good day to get results. You know what's a good day? Sunday. Sunday is a good day. You have a roast dinner and you get to watch TV. Well, you don't. But living in the muggle world I do and, you know, Sunday TV is kind of crap but it's Sunday TV and you just watch it like it's the best form of entertainment in your life and-'

'Lils.' James said, pulling her back down into her seat and looking at the envelope in her hand, 'Do you want me to open them?'

Lily nodded, unable to speak, and handed the letter over to James who opened it with confidence and no hesitation. She watched him study the piece of parchment he had taken out of the envelope, his eyes darting back and forth as he read her grades to himself.

'Well?' Lily asked anxiously.

James looked up from the letter and smiled at Lily, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and forced her to look him in the eye by keeping his hand on her cheek. 'You did brilliantly.' he said proudly, 'You got an E in Ancient Runes and O's in everything else. That's brilliant.'

Lily was a little deflated that she hadn't received O's in every subject if she was to be completely honest with herself. But one look in to James' eyes which beamed of adoration and praise and she forgot everything. Without hesitating, she kissed him, James kissing her back gently at first and then with a kind of urgency. He moved his hands to her hips and impelled her up to standing before moving her down to sit his knee, his arms encircling her waist once she was there and holding her into him.

'Geez get a room!' Sirius said in mock disgust as he walked into the kitchen, closely followed by Remus who pushed James' head forwards in a brotherly manner.

James laughed at his friends and pointed out their result letters to them at the same time that he felt Lily coax his hands from around her waist and stand up. He watched her walk round the table and the island in the kitchen to a cupboard which was floating on the wall above the sink. She took out a glass, turned on the tap and filled it with water. She was very quiet; drinking the water in the same amount of time it took Sirius to read his results. A high five from Remus later, she suggested to Sirius that they go back out and try with the bike again. Sirius agreed and James followed her with his eyes until she was out the door and out of sight, releasing the breath he didn't realise he had been holding and looking down at the envelope containing Lily's results. It was still in his hand.

For the rest of the day, Lily and James hardly spoke. Eventually, Sirius and Remus began to think that they had fallen out and so tried their best to get them speaking to each other again. But whenever they did, Lily bristled and hid a faint blush that was trying to creep its way into her cheeks and James laughed it off. Only they knew that the tension between them wasn't caused because of an argument. And it showed, that desire, every time they looked at each other.

In the evening, Jane Potter returned to the house for a brief intermittent minute and had dinner with Lily and the boys. Lily made pleasant conversation with her, spinning off from the lunch they'd had the other day and the things they had spoken about then. She hardly touched her food however. James was the same way. He pushed his peas around the plate, along with his potatoes and in the end, ended up making a smiley face. He was told off by Jane for doing this, as though he was still a six year old, but his apology was the only words he uttered throughout dinner.

In an instant, the evening passed, Jane Potter returned to work the group was left alone again. Night had fallen. The sky was dotted with stars and the moon was a slim slither in the sky, (much to Remus' delight). Sirius and Remus were in the outhouse in the grounds, putting Lily's bike away whilst she went to get a shower. James was sat on the Parisian Opera House inspired staircase that led to the second floor of the mansion, twiddling his thumbs.

He didn't know what to do now. He had never been in a situation like this, at least not one where he felt the same way as the girl who wanted him. At Hogwarts, quite a few girls had offered themselves up to him, especially on Hogsmeade weekends where it wasn't unusual for a couple of students to sneak of somewhere, like the shrieking shack or a room in the Hogs Head, but he had never accepted their offers. Any other boy of his age would have jumped at the chance but not him. He gave off a devil-may-care attitude but when it came down to things like this, James actually had a sense of decency instilled in him. This was what had made it so difficult for him today.

He didn't want Lily to feel pressured. He loved her and he wanted her to remember their first time together for something they had both wanted. He was sure it was going to be amazing and, from how Lily had been acting today, he was sure it was going to be tonight. However, his morals prevented him from just going up stairs and coming onto her or just jumping into the shower whilst she was still in there. He had asked her straight instead of trying to subtly get her to explain what she meant by the things she had been saying today but he didn't receive a clear enough answer to know what to do. The last time this situation had come up was last Christmas and he knew how awkward and embarrassed Lily had been about that after it had happened. He didn't want to set himself up to fail. So he just sat at the bottom of the staircase, on his own, twiddling his thumbs and at a loss of what to do. But fate was about to grace him with a solution.

'Prongs.' Sirius said as he found his best friend at the bottom of the staircase. He carried four envelopes in his hand. Remus followed him, carrying a fifth and a sixth.

'We just got a letter from Wormy.' Remus explained, holding up one of the letters in his hand.

'What's it say?' James asked. He had asked Peter if he had wanted to come over for the day but, as his mother knew that his N.E.W.T results would be in soon, she hadn't allowed him to come. Peter was now a fully-fledged wizard, allowed to do anything by law; fully independent. His mother didn't realise this however and babied the poor boy. James knew it frustrated Peter but there was nothing he could do. He wasn't the bravest when it came to his mum; which begged the question, why was he placed in Gryffindor?

'Says he got an O in DADA, an E in Care of Magical Creatures and A's in the others.' Sirius said before continuing with, 'Meant he didn't get into the auror training programme.' He waved the four envelopes at James.

'Are those…?' James asked, pointing at them.

'Yep.' Sirius said, genuinely exhibiting nervousness, something none of the marauders, (except maybe Peter), did willingly. 'One for me, one for you, one for Moony…' (Remus held up the other letter in his hand) '…and two for Lily. Why does she get two?' Sirius finished.

'She applied for healer and auror training programmes.' James said offhandedly, standing up and taking the two letters with her name on them and the one with his. He shoved Lily's letters into his back pocket and turned his over anxiously in his hands. He looked up to his friends. 'Together?' he asked.

Sirius and Remus nodded and, all at once, the three marauders opened their letters. All of them had the grades to get into the auror training programme.

'I got in!' Sirius grinned.

'Same.' James smirked, a little cockily. He had always believed he would get into the auror training programme. He had the grades and his dad was an auror. It was sort of a given at that stage.

'I didn't.' Remus said folding his letter up and shoving it in his pocket along with his hands. He grimaced and shrugged at his friends who both had apologetic looks upon their faces.

'Sorry mate.' James said, Sirius nodding along with his condolence.

'It's all right.' Remus shrugged again. 'I knew I wouldn't get in. They wouldn't want someone like me.'

'That's-'

'True.' Remus cut in. He sighed. 'It's ok. I'll start looking for a job tomorrow so I can pay for things and-'

'Mate I told you that wasn't an issue.' James said.

'For me it is.' Remus replied, pulling at the lining of the pockets on the new jeans that Mrs Potter had bought him. 'I'll see you in the morning.' he stated with an air of finality.

'Well…' James said, 'I'll go give Lily her letters then. See you in the morning.'

'Night.' Sirius said.

The three boys parted ways, the celebration that would have been, brought down by Remus' rejection letter. Sirius headed to the kitchen to grab some food to take to bed with him. Remus made his way up the stairs, drudgingly, and a moment later, James followed him making his way to the room down one of the hallways that lead off of the balcony where he and Lily were staying for the night. (Sirius had insisted on keeping James' room, forcing the couple to move as Lily didn't want to be sleeping in the same room as him). James paused outside the door and took a deep breath. Slowly he opened the door and walked in.

The room was papered a dark royal blue with deep blue curtains and a mahogany four-post king-sized bed against the wall in the centre. There was matching mahogany furniture, (end tables, bedside tables, a dressing table, a double wardrobe and a large bureau) all set out spaciously in the large room. There was also a window seat filled with plush cushions, a chaise lounge at the foot of the bed and two silk covered deep blue armchairs set in front of the large marble fireplace, above which hung an artistic masterpiece of a secluded forest. The room was far larger than the one that James shared with Sirius and far classier. It was beautiful, the kind of room you'd expect to find upon visiting a foreign palace.

He stood just next to the door and, after locking it, pulled out the two letters which he had taken off of Sirius; the ones addressed to Lily. He stared down at the calligraphy on the envelopes and, even though he knew in his heart of hearts he didn't have to worry, hoped she had received invitations from both training programmes. He only looked up when Lily came out of the en-suite bathroom.

She came into the room brushing her deep red hair, obviously having just used a handy little spell to dry it instantaneously. She stopped attending to her hair upon seeing James and set both her wand and hairbrush down on the dressing table. She looked at the letters in his hand. 'What are those?' she asked, gesturing to them.

James tore his eyes from her. He had gulped rather audibly in his opinion when he had seen her. She was only wearing a grey towel wrapped loosely around her body. He moved his eyes back to the letters, very nervous about the situation, but also, very sure. He was sure.

'Um…Letters from the healer and auror training programmes.' he said, 'Me, Remus and Sirius opened ours downstairs. Me and Sirius got in. Remus and Peter didn't.'

'Oh.' Lily said, approaching James in an almost daze, 'And me?'

'I don't know.' James shrugged, 'You'll have to open them and find out.'

Lily nodded her head and took the letters from his hands. Carefully, she opened the letter from the auror training programme and then immediately, after, opened the one from the healer training programme. That was the one she really wanted. She read it hastily and expressionlessly. It was only when she looked up at James, breathing deeply, that he knew the answer.

'I got in.' she said.

'Yeah?' James replied with an asking grin.

'Yeah.' Lily repeated, astonished. 'I got in. I got in!' she said as she flung her arms around James' neck, hugging him tightly.

James hugged her back, lifting her slightly so that she was stood on the tips of her toes. He pulled back and smiled at her, looking her directly in the eyes. She beamed back at him, happy beyond belief. He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and left his hand on her cheek, looking into her eyes for a couple of moments more before he hesitantly kissed her. She kissed him back, winding her hands into his messy hair, James holding her tightly against him. She moved her hand down to where his t-shirt met his jeans and slid her hand under his top. James deepened their kiss and moved his own hand to where her towel closed to the side of her chest. His hand clasped around the tucked in knot. They both knew where this was heading.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	8. Chapter 7

**And I couldn't leave you without the morning after so here we are again! Two chapters today, you lucky sods! :p**

**Chapter Seven now!**

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

The light shone through a thin gap in the curtains in the room where Lily and James slept. Lily was the first to wake. She opened her eyes slowly, blinking a couple of times to adjust to the dim light of the room. She looked to the side of her where James was still sleeping, his messy black hair over his eyes, one of his arms folded behind his head and the other, which had been over Lily's waist, now rested on his bare chest where she placed it as she sat up. He looked so peaceful and Lily smiled at him, holding the covers over her chest and thinking about the previous night. She and James had slept together for the first time after receiving news that they had both been accepted into the training programmes they had applied for at the beginning of the summer. It had, in Lily's opinion, been perfect. The right measure of gentleness, urgency, love and heated passion had erupted between them. Lily couldn't have imagined a better way for things to happen.

She looked around the room and took note of the clothes strewn here, there and everywhere. James' top was flung over the arm of the chaise lounge at the bottom of the bed, the towel she had been wearing, (for she had just take a shower when things had started to happened), lie on the floor near the locked door and James' trousers were in a heap next to the bed. She smiled to herself in remembrance. The button on his jeans had been rather hard to undo at that moment in time. It didn't slow them down though. She had managed it eventually and she was glad she had.

The door handle to the room rattled, someone trying to get in. Subconsciously, Lily pulled to covers up further in an attempt to cover herself more, (even though it made no difference), but said nothing in answer to whoever was outside the room. They knocked on the door, waited a couple of seconds and then knocked again. They repeated this after a minute and, after an audible sigh, Lily heard footsteps move away from the door and down the hallway to the balcony. Lily relaxed herself and let the covers drop a bit more. Whoever it was, Sirius, Remus or even Jane Potter, obviously didn't need either herself or James urgently. If they did, they would have yelled or would just come back later. She couldn't say she felt guilty about ignoring them.

A throaty groan next to her alerted her to the fact that James was awake. She looked at him briefly as he tried to open his eyes before turning her head to the painting above the marble fireplace and becoming lost in her imaginings, going over the previous night in her head.

James opened an eye and looked over to where Lily now sat, the bed sheet held up against her chest to cover her front, not that she needed to with him but perhaps it made her feel more comfortable. She didn't cover her back though and so, with reckless abandon, he allowed his eyes to rove over her bare back, her curves and where she sat. Because he didn't have his glasses on his vision was a little blurred but it took nothing away from the general picture of Lily's body. He smirked and tugged, perhaps a little childishly, at the bed sheet she was holding up against her. When she turned her head to look at him, he smirked again. 'Was that a knock at the door?' he asked, feeling no need to ask her if she regretted the fact that, the previous night, he had taken her virginity and then some. He knew she didn't regret it. He knew they had both thought it right. He could tell. They had done it again after recovering for a bit. And again after that. They didn't really go to sleep until about half four that morning.

'Yeah.' Lily nodded her head. She too felt no need to confer and confirm with him that what had happened was right. She knew it had been perfectly fine with him that they had had sex. Even more than fine, she hoped. But still, she felt no need to ensure this fact was true. Besides, she had been throwing out hints all day yesterday, frustrating James to no end. If they hadn't have slept together, then she may have thought he was either extremely stupid or just didn't want her that way. And James wasn't stupid. 'Somebody wants you.' she continued.

'Unless it's you,' James said, pulling her back down onto the bed and into him, 'I don't care. They can wait.'

Lily smiled at him and James at her before pulling her into a kiss, both eager for a repeat of a repeat of the night before.

* * *

'All I'm asking for, Sir, is a chance.' Remus told the owner of the Magical Menagerie down Diagon Alley.

Seeing as Remus did not make it into the auror training programme, he found himself in the unlucky position of having nothing to fill his days with, at least not in the foreseeable future. Neither did Peter. So, the two of them had taken it upon themselves to search for a job. They couldn't very well go into the muggle world, so a mediocre job in a store down Diagon Alley or in Hogsmeade was their only option. They had covered Hogsmeade that morning but to no avail. Madam Rosmerta did say that there was a possibility of needing extra staff closer to Christmas but, at the moment, she had no jobs available. She was the only one who had offered anything substantial though. Only one or two shops were hiring in Hogsmeade but it seemed that, with Remus' condition and Peter's grades, neither of them were viable candidates for anything.

Sirius, who had joined them on this venture seeing as James did not respond to his knocking that morning, (which he should have as Lily was supposed to have gone early that morning and Sirius had knocked at eleven am), tried his hardest to convince Remus not to disclose the fact that he was a werewolf to potential employers. It wasn't that Sirius didn't want people knowing because, if he had his way, the whole world would accept Remus for whom he really was. He didn't care so why should other people? They just had prejudice inbred in them something he knew about all too well as a Black. So it was for this reason Sirius attempted to reason with Remus to keep his condition quiet whilst looking for jobs. But Remus wouldn't listen.

'I need to tell them Sirius.' he had said earlier that day in Madam Puddifoot's teashop where Peter was enquiring about work first, 'It's dishonest if I don't. They need to know who they're hiring.'

'Not straight away though.' Sirius had replied, 'It's just gonna make it harder for you to get a job.'

'I'd rather get a job honestly.' Remus had retorted before walking out of the shop to stand outside in the cool heat of the sun.

Sirius had waited for Peter to fail in his attempts at applying for a job before leaving the teashop to join Remus outside. From there, the three of them had left for Diagon Alley with the thought that perhaps there were some jobs available there. However, when they arrived and began their search, it became increasingly apparent that there were none. Either the position had been filled days ago, Peter grades weren't good enough, Remus was being discriminated against or the shop owners were just feeling rather mean today. It wasn't looking good.

'I'm sorry…Mr Lupin,' the shop owner said, remembering Remus name but using it sparingly, 'I simply can't allow you to work here.'

'I work hard sir, my grades-'

'Your grades are not important to me Mr Lupin.' the manager interrupted, 'I simply cannot hire you. Taking care of these creatures requires full time dedications and whilst your Outstanding in N.E.W.T standard Care of Magical Creatures prompts me to give you a chance, the fact that you are not able to work full time stops you from even applying for the job. Perhaps if you weren't…if the issue wasn't…maybe if-'

'For fuck sake!' Sirius swore, far too angry to tone down his language. His foul mouthing had become more and more obscene since leaving Hogwarts where you would be penalised for using certain words. Of course, he tried not to swear when Jane Potter was present for she didn't particularly like that language and, technically, she was giving him a place to live, food to eat and clothes to wear, but Sirius did believe he was an adult now, under no one's control but his own. If he wanted to swear he would, and at the minute, the shop owner had angered him to such an extent that he just didn't give a damn anymore.

'Who gives a shit if he's a werewolf?' he yelled at the shopkeeper, causing the few customers in the shop to look their way, 'Who cares? He's smarter than any of this idiots in the store- yes I'm talking to you!' he snapped at a mother who gasped loudly at Sirius' rather dramatic display. She hurried her small son, who couldn't be more than five or six, out of the shop whilst Sirius shouted after her, 'Yeah that's right! Run out the shop cause the werewolf is gonna kill you by existing harmlessly and the boy who swears is gonna help him out-'

'Mr Lupin!' the manager said loudly over the top of Sirius' ranting's, 'Please remove your friend from my shop he is discouraging my customers-'

'Oh and we wouldn't want that now would we!' Sirius retorted snidely as Remus sighed and took his arm.

'Come on Sirius.' Remus said disheartened, pulling him away from the shop owner who didn't look very impressed.

'I am so pissed off with this-'

'Sirius! Please.' Remus said quietly and pleadingly to his friend.

Sirius looked at Remus and paused for a good couple of seconds before huffing a sigh and turning to the door. He walked to it and opened it before looking back at the manager who stood with his arms folded and a stern expression, obviously making sure they were leaving. 'Don't think I'm ever coming in here again!' Sirius raged.

'Don't think that _that_ is your choice.' the owner replied, not wanting to ever relive the experience of Sirius Black again.

'You're a pathetic piece of crap.' Sirius sneered at him as he left the shop muttering to himself, (and partly Remus), how unjust this whole situation was.

When Sirius and Remus had left the shop, Peter, who they had not noticed they had left behind, hovered. A shop which Sirius was not liable to ever go in again was a very tempting possibility. He wouldn't have to deal with his friend coming into the shop and putting him off, teasing him if he did something wrong or making him nervous that he wasn't doing things well. There was nothing stopping him from going up to the manager and sweet talking his way into the job. But Peter had never been able to sweet talk his way into anything. The only person he knew who could do that one hundred per cent of the time was James. If James was here, maybe Peter would have asked him to enquire about the job for him. But…no. He wouldn't have actually. He would have been too scared James would have said no. Just like he was too scared now to approach the manager.

Peter sighed and made his way towards the door. He would never be able to do anything like that. Sirius would see it as a betrayal. And if Sirius saw it as a betrayal, so would James, especially if it was over Remus' lycanthropy. Peter couldn't betray his friends like that. He didn't have the guts. Instead, all he could do, was follow them. So when he was out of the shop, he looked both ways down the street to see where Remus and Sirius had gone. He would catch up with them and listen to Sirius rant about how unfair it was that Remus was unable to get a job because of something he couldn't control. He would listen until Remus cut Sirius off and distract him with the offer of some pie. Then they would all go get pie. Then Peter would listen to Sirius rage again, repeating what he had previously ranted about. It was all he could do really; follow and listen.

* * *

In the early afternoon, before James took Lily back home, (though he had tried to convince her to stay another night), he took her out for lunch. They went to the same little diner that they had visited in the summer last year before their seventh year at Hogwarts had begun; the place they went to celebrate their positions as head boy and head girl. It had changed slightly though. The table and chair seating had been almost completely replaced with red leather booths that lined the windowed walls of the diner. The tables that had been kept were squashed together and were small and round with really only enough room for two though at a push more could squeeze on. The counter had shrunk slightly to make way for a large rotating display case of cakes and pies, something which James spotted as soon as they walked in. Above the counter, they had put up a price list of the foods that they served. It had become a bit more high-end and didn't quite have that 'family business' vibe that it's did last time. It obviously didn't seem to matter though as the place was packed, save for a few tables. Another change was that you now had to wait to be seated.

The pair waited at the entrance next to a little podium that had a sign hung on it saying their wait would be five minutes. It was, as a matter of fact, actually less than that. They were stood there for no longer than thirty seconds when a waitress wearing a red dress with a frilly black pinafore, (much different to the blue and white chequered uniform their waitress had worn last time), came to greet them.

'How many?' she asked with a bouncing smile.

James looked between himself and Lily. 'Obviously there's twelve of us.' he said sarcastically.

The girl however, (whose name tag read Rebecca), didn't seem to pick up on James' tone and looked around the diner with a worried face. 'I'm afraid we don't seem to have enough tables available for twelve…' she said, 'It would be at least a forty-five minute wait.'

'He's joking.' Lily told the girl kindly, elbowing James in the ribs for his sarcasm, 'There's only two of us.'

It took Rebecca a couple of seconds to register what Lily had said to her. She looked between the couple until James raised his eyebrows and nodded his head. Then realisation hit her.

'Oh!' she said, her smile wavering as she tittered politely, 'Ha, ha, ha…If you'd like to follow me.'

James rolled his eyes at the girl but nonetheless followed her, along with Lily to a small table for two in the middle of the restaurant in view of the door. When they sat down, Lily ordered two diet cokes, (she had learned not to give James a full sugared coke as he had suddenly became very hyper last time), and two orders of cottage pie and vegetables. When Rosie left, their order jotted down on a tiny little notepad, James looked over to Lily and shook his head.

'Don't be mean.' Lily reprimanded him, 'Sometimes it's hard to tell when you're being sarcastic.'

James thought for a moment. 'No it isn't.' he said.

'Well for some people it is.' Lily said simply whilst James smirked at her. Wanting to move past this as quickly as possible, for really it didn't affect them whether their waitress understood James' sense of humour or not, Lily asked, 'You excited for the auror training programme?'

'Probably nowhere near as excited about it as you are about the healer one.' James said in answer, still smirking, 'I doubt anyone is.'

Lily feigned a hurt shocked expression before going into an excited ramble which, after going out with her for almost a whole year now, and even from just being friends with her the year before that, James was fully expecting from her. It made him chuckle as she went on.

'How can you not be excited? I am so excited for it! It's what I want to do! And this is the first step to getting there. I can't believe I was accepted! I didn't think I would be and it's just so exciting! It's like university for witches and wizards. And at the end of it, I'll be a proper healer, helping people-'

'Having them throw up on you.' James put in.

'Ew come on!' Lily scowled playfully, 'Don't make me give up before I've even started.'

'Highly unlikely.' James replied.

'I wonder what books I'll need.' Lily went on to say, her state almost dreamlike as she imagined the fascinating books on wizarding illnesses that she would have to buy.

'Books?' James questioned, 'You don't need books!'

'Yes you- thank you.' she said politely to Rebecca the waitress as she set down their drinks on the table and informed them that their meals would be out shortly. 'You do need books.' Lily continued when she had gone, her voice lowering a little bit for some unknown reason. 'How do you think you'll learn anything?'

'They'll teach us it?' James said as if it was obvious.

'Yes but how do you think you're going to study for any tests they give you?' Lily pointed out.

'Whoa, whoa, whoa!' James said, sitting up in his seat and opening his arms in question, 'Who said anything about tests? I'm gonna be an auror. Auror's get out into the real world and kick death eater arse. _That's _what I'll be doing. There's no time for tests.'

Lily looked at him in shocked astonishment for a moment wondering how on earth he thought that he was going to get through a three year training programme without reading any extra resource material or taking any tests. 'The first year is theoretical. It did say this on the letter you know.' she mentioned.

James looked confused. 'Did it?'

'Yes!' Lily laughed, but not like it was funny, 'Did you not read your letter?'

'I read the part about me getting in…' James remembered.

'That was the first-'

'Err Lily.' James said, any humour that was in his face draining from it immediately from shock, 'Your parents are here.' He pointed to the door that had just opened and closed as Mr and Mrs Evans walked in; Richard and Heather.

Lily looked around to see her mum and dad standing near the podium where they were waiting to be greeted by a waitress. It was the only way they were going to find a table. Just like James, Lily's humour left her face as she looked at her parents in shock. She thought they were both at work today and so had a hard time believing that they were actually here. Of course, she could see them and her eyes weren't lying to her. She turned around quickly as her father looked her way. She prayed that he hadn't seen her but her luck wasn't usually good. Besides, if he didn't see her, he would see James.

'Did they see us?' she asked James in a hopeful whisper, knowing full well it was in vain. It wasn't two seconds later that she heard her father's voice next to her.

'Lily.' he said, ignoring James as per usual, (he still didn't like him), 'What are you doing here?'

Lily looked up at her dad, trying to smile. Only she couldn't. Suddenly she felt extremely hot under the collar and had the very odd feeling that everybody in the diner at that moment could read her mind. It wasn't a nice feeling. 'Just having some lunch.' she said nervously, a bit of a stammer in her voice which caused James, (who's natural humorous expression had returned), to look at her with a questioning frown. Obviously he had no idea what she was feeling.

'I didn't expect-'

'Richard stop bothering them.' Heather said good naturedly to her husband. 'Hello James.' She greeted him, smiling.

Heather Evans was the complete opposite to Richard when it came to the issue of James. Heather believed James was a lovely boy well suited to her daughter. She rather liked him and trusted him to take care of Lily. Richard Evans however, wouldn't trust James with a blade of grass. All because Lily had once told him horrible stories about James and how he used to pick on Severus Snape. Of course, James had changed his ways, and had done so for Lily, but Richard refused to see that. James found this rather odd in reality as Richard didn't know James until he and Lily started dating. He was literally judging him on past information.

'They've got a table for us Richard.' Heather said, 'Let's leave these two to their dinner and go-'

'We'll sit here.' Richard announced, pulling a spare chare from the table next to Lily and James', the couple who were at with it only glancing over briefly as it was taken away from them.

'I'm sure that Lily and-'

'They don't mind!' Richard interrupted his wife for the second time in just a couple of minutes. It caused her to scowl at him, especially as the next thing he did was challenge James by turning to him and asking him, 'Do you?' directly.

James shook his head slowly, his face showing that he could think of no reasons to say no to Lily's parents on the issue of them joining them for dinner. 'Of course not.' he said politely. 'Here.' he stood up and gestured Heather to the seat, 'You sit here and I'll go find another chair.'

'Thank you James.' Heather said graciously, sitting on James' seat. As he wondered over to a table near there corner booths to see if the empty chairs there were free, she turned to her husband and said, 'Really Richard! Was there any need to do that to the poor boy.' She then looked at Lily, (who was looking nervously uncomfortable), and apologised to her. 'I am sorry to interrupt your lunch Lily.'

Lily just nodded her head briefly before turning to look around for James. He was on his way back now with a chair for himself. He had asked an old couple at the table just across from theirs, interrupting their conversation about muggle politics and how the muggle prime minister had announced recently that he was hoping not going to call a general election as was standard because apparently the private polling data he had received proved that a majority was going to be an unlikely situation. Of course James had no idea what any of this meant so he just took the chair and left, thanking them for their kindness.

'I'm sure this was supposed to be a very lovely date between the two of you.' Heather went on as James arrived back at the table. 'I'm sorry to ruin it.'

'Don't worry about it Mrs Evans.' James smiled winningly at her as he sat down next to Lily. He put his arm around the back of her chair. 'It's really not a big deal. This was just a spur of the moment lunch. You're more than welcome to join us.'

'Are you sure?' Heather asked again.

'Of course he's sure. He's said it about six times already.' Richard said.

'What?' Lily squeaked, mishearing her father.

'I said he's said it's fine around six times.' Richard repeated to his daughter who didn't look convinced that that was what he had actually said. 'Anyway,' Richard went on, 'Did that wardrobe arrive?'

Lily's face fell. She had completely forgotten that she was supposed to go home early that morning to be there for a delivery. Her parents were supposed to be at work and so couldn't do it themselves. She looked at them now and, obviously they weren't at work, but it seemed that they were still unable to wait at home for the delivery earlier that morning for some reason. She mentally smacked herself. She had told James about it the morning before, explaining to him that if she was to stay over she would have to leave early. How could she have forgotten? Of course, she knew how: James. Her mind had been so preoccupied with him last night and this morning again that returning home to wait for a knock on the door had become her last priority.

'I…I…err…' she stammered, unable to look her father in the eye.

'Lily?' James said, placing a reassuring hand on the small of her back. She immediately shrugged it off.

Lily went on. 'I don't know really-'

'What do you mean you don't know?' Richard asked her, his voice booming with a small sense of absurdness. Of course Lily would know if it had arrived. She had been home all night he assumed. Late but still home. Where else could she have been? 'Did you sign for it?' he went on to ask.

Now in reality, Richard was actually speaking rather normally. The volume of his voice was no different than it was usually and his tone was pleasant enough. However, to Lily, he sounded angry and accusatory. It made her anxiously paranoid.

'No.' Lily whispered, starting to draw circles on the table. She felt as if her mind was on display still. 'I didn't get…err…I…this morning I-'

'What were you doing this morning-'

'Nothing!' Lily responded a little too quickly and a little too loudly.

There was a tangible pause at the table. Heather responded immediately in a soft tone asking Lily not to shout so in a restaurant as it was rude. James, concerned for Lily and alarm bells ringing in his ears as it seemed to him Lily was acting oddly, let his hand drop into place reassuringly on her back again. Again, she shrugged it off. Richard frowned suspiciously at Lily, but let it go. He went on to make conversation, doing his best to ignore James as usual but it was hard when he was sitting so close to his precious baby girl. Still, he tried.

'So sweet-pea,' Richard began, taking a menu off of the small stand in the middle of the table and perusing it at leisure, 'What time did you get in last night? We didn't hear you come in.'

James frowned.

'Well, I err…-'

'Why do you keep erring?' Heather questioned. She too was browsing the menu but lowered it slightly to speak to her daughter.

'I don't.' Lily retorted, a bit defensively.

'Well what did you two get up to yesterday evening-'

'Nothing!' Lily snapped in a high-pitched voice, a bit of worry coming through.

Her parents paused to look at each other suspiciously. Then Richard spoke. 'What time did you say you got in last night?'

At that point, James decided to try and help her out, even though he knew her father would bypass his answers and attempts at conversation. Still, he did try because he had watched Lily become very fidgety over the past few minutes and he was sure she was going to get a blister on her finger from where she had been dragging it, drawing circles. He went to answer Richard. 'Actually she stay-'

'Eugah.' Lily vocalised, making a very weird and very un-Lily sound to cut James off with.

Again, there was silence at the table. That was until James broke it. 'Lils can I talk to you outside?' he asked her, though it was more of a demand. He stood up and helped Lily out of her seat before leading her outside of the restaurant, giving a nod to Rebecca the waitress to signify that they would be back in in just a moment and weren't running out on their bill. When they were outside and James was sure that the door was firmly closed, he asked Lily if she was okay.

'I'm fine.' she replied, fiddling with her skin-tight sky blue top and pulling it down so much that she was stretching it. It was the top she had worn yesterday to James'. In fact, her whole outfit was; her short but flowing white skirt and the sky blue top that wrapped itself to her flat stomach teasingly. She should have taken a change of clothes. Suddenly she though that what she was wearing was almost like a big flashing neon sign that shone 'walk of shame'. That was ridiculous though. She wasn't walking anywhere. It was a lunch of shame. She was so paranoid.

'Lils, you're not fine.' James said, shoving his hands in his pockets, 'What's up? What was with all that in there?' he went on, gesturing inside the restaurant with a directional nod of his head.

Lily took a deep breath and folded her arms. She lowered her voice to a whisper. 'He knows.'

James looked lost. 'Knows what?' he asked.

'He _knows_!' she repeated.

'Knows what?' James said in a sarcastic whisper.

Lily grabbed at her top where her arms were folded and tapped her toes nervously. She gave the air of someone who didn't want to be somewhere or didn't want to do something. 'That we had sex.'

James nodded his head. 'Four times.' he commented nonchalantly.

Lily looked at him with a small confused frown. 'What does that have to do with anything?' she asked, not really seeing this as the time to point that out.

James shrugged. 'Just stating the facts.' he muttered.

Lily blinked in disbelief. Again, now was not the time. Not when she thought her dad had somehow found out or he just knew or he could smell it on her or whatever. Not when she felt as if she was on trial. She looked to the ground and tightened the fold in her arms. Her lips were slowly disappearing with anxiousness.

James sighed and took his hands out of his pockets. He took a step towards her and rubbed his hands down her arms in a way of reassurance. 'Look Lils.' he said softly, 'There is no way he knows. He can't. It's not like he has spies at my house just waiting to tell on me for making a move on you.'

Lily looked up at him, her eyes wide in worry. That did sound like her dad really. He was a laugh and good fun but fiercely over protective. And as he didn't like James, it made sense for him not to trust him. But what lengths would he go through to keep James' hands off of her?

'Lily I'm joking!' James chuckled, 'He doesn't even know where I live! Apparently neither of your parents know you spent the night at mine and they won't know that you did, or that we had sex unless we decide to tell them. And I'm pretty sure you don't want to do that.'

'No.' Lily said, a sulky pout appearing on her face. James was right, and she had no idea how in just a few words he had talked her round her paranoia. It was true, her parents didn't know that Lily had spent the night elsewhere or what she had done with her time. And there was no way in hell that they knew where James lived. They knew nothing about it. What part of the country, the fact that it was Wales, hidden from view by spells and enchantments or the fact that it was in actuality a huge mansion rather than a house. She hadn't told them anything about James' wealth you see. Her dad hated him. Her mum liked him. How much money he had was not going to change their opinions of him one bit.

'Should we go back in?' James asked.

'Ok.' Lily replied.

'Are we going to act normally?' he questioned.

Lily paused. 'Bit of a difficult task for you isn't it?'

James smirked at her response before going to the door and opening it for her. She stopped a moment before following and going back into the diner to continue the already uncomfortable meal with her parents. But James was with her. He would back up her little white lies.

* * *

Remus, Sirius and Peter returned to the Potter mansion later that day after a rather unsuccessful trip into town to find Remus and Peter jobs. Remus had not been able to secure so much as an application for a job let alone an interview or one straight off the bat. Apparently for some of them, he had been under qualified which was utter 'bullshit' as Sirius put it. Remus' N.E.W.T grades were in the top one percent for sure. Some of them tried to be polite and decline his services with a standard reply of 'sorry but we filled the position yesterday'. But others were just brutally honest with him and told him what all the other employers were too conservative to say: 'we don't want a werewolf working for us'.

Peter did have a bit of luck in the Magical Menagerie. After he had exited the store in Diagon Alley, begrudgingly resolute on not asking for an application for the shop assistant position that was going there, Remus and Sirius had told him to not be so stupid and forced him to return for one. They told him to never look an opportunity in the eye and miss out on it. He had to be selfish sometimes and do what was best for him, never mind if your friends weren't too happy about it. So he had gone back and gotten the application, acquired Remus' help to fill it out when the three of them went to the Leakey Cauldron for dinner, and handed it in an hour and a half afterwards. He was told that he would hear back from them in about a week if he was successful in getting an interview.

It had been a tiring day. As soon as they had gotten back, they went into James' living room and collapsed on the sofas in there. Sirius had taken over one of the sofas completely, lying across it with his feet on the arm and sloppily eating a pie from a dish on his chest. Remus had taken the other and was in very much the same position as Sirius. The only difference was he didn't have pie. He had chocolate on his chest and a book open on his face, the one Dumbledore had lent him before he had left Hogwarts, (something he was desperate to return to him as soon as possible). And Peter was sitting, not in either of the deep armchairs available to him, but on the large round cushioned stool eating some ice-cream from one of Mrs Potters favourite porcelain bowls. It was in these positions that James found them in when he entered the room that evening. They were lazily ghostly.

'Geez what's up with you guys?' he laughed as he came into the room and flopped onto the armchair next to Sirius' sofa.

'Where shoo bin?' Sirius asked with a frown, spitting pie as he spoke. He swallowed. 'We were all meant to go and help these two shitheads get jobs.' he went on, jerking his head in the directions of Remus and Peter.

'Thanks dude.' Remus said, his voice a bit muffled by his book.

'Ah yeah I forgot.' James replied, swinging his legs over the arm of the chair so that he was lying, (rather squashed), on it. 'Sorry mate.' he said to Remus, unintentionally ignoring Peter.

'Don't worry about it.' Remus sighed, sitting up and the book dropping from his face onto his lap. He moved so that his was sitting where is head was moments ago, 'No one wanted to hire me anyway.'

'Then they're all twats.' James said.

'How come you forgot?' Sirius asked curiously, 'I knocked on your door this morning.'

'Didn't hear you.' James said, 'Anyway, Lily was still here.'

'I thought she was leaving early?' Remus said, opening the wrapper on his bar of chocolate.

'Her plans changed.' James shrugged before standing up and asking the group if any of them wanted a drink.

Sirius and Remus looked at each other, both with one eyebrow raised and curious expressions on their faces. Peter was the only one who went to answer James' question but Sirius held his hand up to him to shut him up.

'Come again?' Sirius asked, a smirk dawning on his face.

'Her plans changed.' James repeated patronizingly slow. He then turned and walked out of his sitting room, through his mums living room, and several other large and unused rooms on his way to the kitchen. Sirius and Remus, along with Peter trailing after them, left it a couple of minutes before they followed him, wanting to know what had happened with Lily.

'So why'd her plans change?' Remus asked as they followed James into the kitchen.

'Cause they did.' James replied, giving nothing away. When they finally reached the kitchen he made a bee line to one of the cupboards and took out a glass. He then walked over to the sink and filled it up with water, then turned to lean on the counter and face his friends. Peter had jumped up onto one of the stools that ran the length of one of the sides of the island as a sort of makeshift breakfast bar. Remus did the same but leant forwards onto his elbows, his hands clasped together and a look of intrigue on his face. Then there was Sirius who was still smirking at James, leant lazily on the surface top of the island, crumbs of the pie that he had been eating previously pinned to his top. It was he who decided to take the direct route.

'So did you sleep with her?' he asked, raising his eyebrows suggestively. Peter gasped as if it was the biggest news in the world and Remus rolled his eyes at him but looked mildly interested at James.

James swallowed and took a breath, deciding on his answer and whether Lily would be mad about him telling them that they had. He took a sip of his water and contemplated his decision. They were his friends after all. If he wanted to share this with them, if only for a distasteful high five then he could. And he was pretty sure that she would tell Alice and Frank. Why couldn't he tell them? He lowered his glass and swallowed the water he still had in his mouth. He nodded slowly. 'Yeah.' he said eventually.

Peter gasped again, earning himself a smack around the head from Remus for making the situation far more dramatic than it needed to be. After all, Lily and James had been dating for over a year. It was kind of inevitable that things would happen between them. It was just a matter of when.

'DUDE!' Sirius yelled, going out for that high five James knew he would get and, smirking, he took it.

'I thought you were waiting till marriage.' Peter asked timidly.

Both Sirius and James' expressions turned into derisive frowns. 'Nah mate that's you.' James laughed.

'If you ever land a girl who'd have you.' Sirius jeered.

Remus snorted a laugh and looked at Peter with pitiful sympathy. He looked extremely disheartened.

'So Jimmy-boy,' Sirius said, turning back to James, 'How was it? She good?'

'I'm not telling you.' James chuckled, 'Pervert.'

'Aww come on!' Sirius whined, banging his fist on the table, 'I haven't had sex in almost six months dude. That's bad.'

'You have an odd definition of the word bad considering the war that's going on at the minute.' Remus pointed out.

'Yeah but it's not like it's touched us here.' Sirius said, gesturing around the safer than safe Potter Mansion. 'Not like I need to be to-'

'TOO much information!' Remus cut him off whilst James chuckled. 'If you're that hard up, why don't you stop being perverted and begging James for scraps of details about his sex life and go out and find someone yourself.'

Sirius' eyes lit up. 'You're right!' he stated excitedly, 'Tonight we hit the town. Find us all some tail!' he banged his fist on the table and looked around at his friends who all looked sceptically at him. His face fell. 'Well…' he began again, 'Not Mr Commitment over here and, come on let's face it, Wormy ain't gonna get any action till he sorts this…' Sirius gesture to the whole of Peter, '…out. But you and me, Moony!'

'Oh joy.' Remus sighed. James smirked at him.

'We can do it!' Sirius said enthusiastically, 'It may take you a while but I can teach you the tricks of the trade.'

'This is not the education I signed up for.'

'With me as a wing man…' Sirius started, staring confidently into a corner and stopping mid-sentence as a 'power move'.

'Please say he doesn't have real wings?' Remus asked James.

'Can't promise you anything.' James chuckled much to Remus' displeasure.

'Great.' he said, rolling his eyes. There was a silence. Remus looked at Sirius who was still staring triumphantly into a corner. He looked back at James. 'Is he ever gonna finish that sentence?'

'Probab-'

'WE CANNOT FAIL!' Sirius yelled, punching his fist into the air.

'There you go.' James said

Sirius looked around at his friends and grinned like a mad man at the prospect of a night out to pick up girls. And this, he hoped, was to be the first of many. And he rather liked that idea.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! :)**

**Review if you want to but you don't have to.**

**My next update will be on the 5th of June!**

**Galindaba**


	9. Chapter 8

**Hey guys! :)**

**So this is your 5th of June update. I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

'How does he do it?' Peter asked depressively as he looked over to Sirius who was standing at the bar in the Leaky Cauldron. He was talking to a dark haired girl wearing a too tight strappy red dress that showed pretty much all of her legs, arms and chest.

For the past couple of weeks, the boys had been going out almost every night. For the first few, Peter had been trying his hardest to pick up girls but to no avail. They just weren't interested in him which depressed him endlessly as he was very interested in them. And not just to have sex with them which was, for at least the first week, both Sirius and Remus' aim. No Peter wanted to be more like James than like them. He liked the way that James could just disappear with Lily and escape the rest of them. It was like freedom but with someone he actually liked. And got to have sex with. It was like the perfect choice for Peter. He just hadn't quite managed to find it yet.

He had told Sirius, Remus and James what he wanted. Remus had been ambivalent towards the idea. Not cynical and not quite optimistic. He actually didn't say anything really, just gave a single, thoughtful nod, as if he was thinking about the same thing. James had given him a cocky smirk that said, 'I know I have an awesome life' and then a shrug of the shoulders when Peter had looked to him on advice on how he, Wormtail, the little plump boy who still lived with his over-protective mother, could have what James had. Surprisingly, it had been Sirius who had had advice on the matter. At the time, he slung his arm over Peters shoulder and told him the secret to James' success.

'Alright Wormy, here's what you do.' he began, his alcohol layered breath almost scorching Peters eyes as he spoke down to him, 'Find a girl in this room. Any girl. Stare at her. Are you staring Wormy?'

'Yes.' Peter had said. He had transfixed his eyes upon a pretty blonde girl with similar blue, watery eyes to him. Perhaps they had both felt belittled at some point by both family and friends. Maybe they had middle ground to start on.

'Right, what you do now is…' he paused in false thought for a second, 'You know what, I've forgotten.' He went on before turning to James and asking, 'Hey Prongs, is it five or six years of pining away whilst she ignores your on-going attempts to flirt with her and ask her out?'

James' 'isn't my life fantastic' smile faded then and he glared at Sirius. 'That's not funny.'

'You are right it was five years.' he said, nodding his head, ignoring James' scowl and turning back to Peter. 'For the sixth year, you become her friend and continue to pine for her secretly. That's right. In this year you get her to like you back and make her see that you are no longer the pretentious douche she thought you were for the first five years. And even when you learn she does like you from someone close to her, you still do nothing because, hey! What person doesn't like a bit of harmless angst in their life!?'

'Dude! Do you have to?' James said, unimpressed with Sirius' retelling of the unflattering beginnings of his story with Lily. (Later that evening though, after one too many, he had found Sirius' word highly hilarious and kept repeating impressions of it the rest of the night.)

'I'm just trying to help him land a girl for once!' Sirius drawled, still with a smirk. 'So!' he continued, turning back to Peter whom he had still had his arm around, 'Where was I? Ah yes! What you do then, is admit your long harboured feelings towards the girl. She finally admits she feels the same way about you herself, and then you still do nothing for a few months until you decide go out in secret for a couple months before it all comes out in some huge dramatic way!'

Peter had then looked up at him with derisive uncertainty. 'When do I get to sleep with her?'

'Well…' Sirius had thought, looking at the girl that Peter had picked out before, 'With her…in eight years.'

Peter had given up on the idea after that. He had tried to talk to that pretty blonde haired girl but it turned out that her eyes were only watery because her grandfather had just died. There was no middle ground for them after all. Peter did try to carry on talking to her, to try and comfort her in her time of grief, but Sirius had swooped in whispering 'red alert, red alert' to Peter and ushering him away. Peter had thought that Sirius was leaving the grieving girl behind too but, when he turned around, Sirius was still talking to her. It only took him ten minutes before he left with her, giving a huge thumbs up to James who returned the gesture with a grinning laugh. Peter did try half-heartedly after that but whenever he thought he might have a shot, Sirius would jump in and close the deal for himself.

It was extremely frustrating for him, especially as he could only come out on Wednesday and Saturday nights because that was when his mum had her book club with some of the ladies down his street, (all muggles). Technically his mum didn't allow him to go on drinking nights out. Apparently, his fragile and tender stomach wouldn't be able to hand alcohol and his mother knew that his friends would try to pressure him into drinking. Better he stay in the house and stay healthy then go out and die from alcohol poisoning. So Wednesdays and Saturdays were the only days he could sneak out the house without his mother knowing. She didn't get home till eleven and she made Peter go to bed at half ten each night. She didn't check on him. She just assumed he would be in bed asleep which worked just fine for Peter. He'd stay at James' on these nights with the other marauders.

Remus on the other hand, had lasted a smidgen longer than Peter. But, unlike it was for Peter, it wasn't his charm, looks, personality, or any traits he had in himself that let him down. He was a handsome and interesting lad. Of course, he had a few scars here and there which he would rather not let show but, he knew if it got down to it, they could be explained away with excuses. He had a good imagination; he could create some story as to why he had so many marks. Plus, after speaking to him for a few minutes, his intelligence would shine through and, as Sirius always said, girls like good looking guys with brains to boot. So there was no excuse for him not to be trolling out there every night with Sirius, attempting to seduce some poor willing girl into sleeping with him. It was just himself giving up. He was more than capable of picking up a girl in the bar but, just like James, he had a commitment streak which meant he wasn't all too enthusiastic about the idea of hooking up with someone for one night.

When he started out at the beginning of the night, looking for a girl he thought he could talk to, it seemed so easy. There would be no risk of her becoming prejudice because there would be no reason for Remus to tell her of his condition. After one night, as was the way Sirius said the system worked, she would be gone, and he would be moving on. Rejection wasn't an issue. But as the night would ware on and he would be sat talking to someone, getting to know them and getting to like them, the more he thought that whoever he was speaking to seemed more like someone he could view himself in a relationship with. Someone he couldn't leave in the morning with no word of goodbye or even a note. Someone who he believed deserved better than that. Somebody who deserved a man to be as good to them as James was to Lily. And so, because he knew that he could not give anything like that to that person, he would smile at the end of the night and politely decline when they asked for him to walk them home, go back to theirs, or write to them or whatever. He would say no to all of that, say that it was nice meeting them and walk away. After doing this for a week, he decided to give up. It wasn't worth it really.

So all that was left to do for the few weeks before the training programmes started, was to go out each night, (apart from those full mooned ones of course), and watch Sirius win time after time after time. The boy hadn't slept in his own bed for almost a month and, to be honest, he seemed perfectly happy about it. As was James as it meant when Lily stayed they could actually sleep in his room and not have to move to another.

James looked over to where Sirius was stood at the bar, moving his hand around the dark haired girls waist to her back and pulling her ever so slightly closer towards him. 'He's always had a knack for it.' he chuckled, taking a swig from his Butterbeer bottle as he answered Peter's question of 'How does he do it?'

'Add that to the fact that that girl has no self-esteem and it's kind of inevitable.' Remus put in, looking over to the girl. She was pretty. Dark hair, dark eyes, pouty lips and a red dress were a lethal combination to any man. Then again, that girl didn't turn quite as many heads as Lily did when she walked into the bar, her deep red hair loosely curled and clipped back on one side, dark blue denim jeans and a loose fitting emerald green jumper that hung off of one of her shoulders revealing the strap to her black strappy top underneath. She was a breath of fresh air and normalcy in a bar full of desperate twenty something's and old drunkards.

When James spotted her, he smiled and raised his Butterbeer at her. She, in return, rolled her eyes and made a small, almost unseen gesture towards the bar that told him she was going to get a drink of her own.

'You see Wormy,' James said, 'if you did exactly what Sirius told you a few weeks ago, in eight years, you could be sleeping with the girl who turns the most heads when she walk in.'

'You hated that story when he first told it.' Peter mumbled.

'I know but,' James sighed, 'It stars me. And I can't really hate something that I star in now can I?'

Over at the bar, Lily was ordering herself a Butterbeer. She glanced around as she waited to survey the pub scene. Peter was with them today and he looked as gloomy as ever. She always wanted him to cheer up but didn't know how to get through to him. Remus and James were sat laughing about something or other. At first she couldn't see Sirius but when she looked again, she saw him chatting up a girl who couldn't have been more than twenty-two years old. She rolled her eyes fondly at him, something which, in the past, she would have never of thought possible in this situation, yet for Sirius it was. He was always trying to flirt with someone and she felt as if she hadn't seen him try to get some poor unwitting girl to take him home like a stray puppy for ages. She didn't come out with the boys as often as she would like because she was in full preparation mode for the Healer training programme, the commencement for which was almost imminent. However, she decided to take a day of and spend the night with James and their friends, something which she hadn't done in a week or more. She felt a bit distant.

'All righ' bootiful?' came a slur from next to her. She could smell the alcohol on his breath. She shuddered to think how close he was to her. She looked to her right, where the guy was standing and saw a boy around her age leaning on the bar for support and staring at her whilst licking his lips.

She tried to force a smile. 'Just waiting for a drink.' she said shortly, not particularly wanting to get into a conversation with him. He was a good-looking lad in theory but his posture, state of inebriation, drunken slurred voice and the fact that she had a boyfriend put her off him completely.

'Was say yous came back to mine for drink 'stead?'

'I'm fine thanks.' Lily said. She shuddered as he advanced slightly towards her, spilling a bit of the pint he had in his hand. 'And if you come any closer I promise it's the last thing you'll do.' She had withdrawn her wand, ready and able to fight her own battles. However, the drunken boy didn't notice this and didn't seem to get the message that she wasn't interested.

'Come on girl. I bets I couldst make you-'

'What's up Lily-flower?'

Lily looked to the left side of her and breathed a sigh of relief at someone leaning on the bar next to her.

'Back off bro! She my caught. I catched her.'

'You're gonna catch something in a minute.' he said, 'If you get my drift.' He looked down at Lily's wand.

The drunken man attempted to level his severely dilated eyes at the wand that was pointed to his trousers. He seemed to think better of himself, obviously knowing that he was in no state to win a duel against anyone and that, if he tried to throw curses out, he'd probably miss and have the rebound upon himself. 'Yours loss.' he muttered as he walked away.

Lily sighed with relief at his withdrawal. 'Thank you.' she said gratefully as she warily watched the drunk guy walk over to the dark haired girl in a too tight strappy red dress. She slipped her wand back into her bag.

Sirius grinned. 'No problem.'

'If you hadn't have come over when you did though-'

'You'd have probably done some major damage.' Sirius laughed, giving her a one arm hug, 'But I wouldn't want Tom to have to chuck you out for cursing someone. You are like an annoying ginger sister to me-'

'I'm not ginger.'

'-and I need my ginger sister to hang out with.' he said, '(And take us all home when we all get too drunk.)'

Lily paused, not taking the hidden compliment that Sirius had given her on her dueling skills and ignoring the fact that he was expecting her to drag all of the marauders back to the mansion in one piece by herself. No she was more concerned about other comments. 'I'm not ginger.' she repeated.

Sirius looked confused. He gestured to her deep red hair. But the she raised her eyebrows dangerously at him and he decided to let it go.

'Anyway,' he went on quickly, 'you know that if I hadn't have come over Prongs would have seen and then he'd have come over and we'd all be banned from this pub for life, friends with the landlord or not.'

Lily sighed. 'You're probably right.'

'So, now that you've cost me my date,' Sirius said to Lily, grabbing her Butterbeer from the side that Tom had just put down, and glancing at the girl he had spent almost twenty minutes talking to, 'Let's go sit down.'

'I'd hardly call her a date Sirius.' Lily laughed as she walked with him through the crowded pub to the booth where James, Remus and Peter sat, 'How long you known her?'

'Like that's important.' Sirius scoffed, 'What's important is that you have just broken my streak. And that is a grudge I will hold by the way. Besides, now I have to go back to my own bed which means you and Jimmy-boy will have to find somewhere else to have sex so ha-ha jokes on you!'

Lily rolled her eyes. 'Fantastic.' she said.

* * *

On the eighteenth of September, Lily, James and Sirius, Remus, and Peter, all went their separate ways into the 'real world'. Lily made her way on her own to St Mungo's Hospital to enrol on a three year training course so that she could become a healer. James and Sirius went to the Ministry of Magic to enrol on their three year course to become aurors, a programme which, unfortunately, neither Remus or Peter made it on to. However, Peter had managed to wrangle himself a job interview at the Magical Menagerie down Diagon Alley. This just left Remus. And all he had to do was sit in the big Potter mansion all by himself.

He had contemplated going to visit his parents but they would both be at work. Plus, since he had moved out, he hadn't particularly been in regular contact with them. He had seen them possibly once or twice a month since he had left Hogwarts and had gone to live with Sirius, James and his mum. The visits had been short.

So now all he had to do was roam the grounds, search the house, and possibly spend sometime in the library. Perhaps he would even clean the place. He wasn't sure how much tidying had been done in this place since Linda died if he was to be truly honest with himself. Jane Potter didn't have time to clean and James, from being so sheltered from such things because he had always had others to do it for him, probably couldn't even tell you which end of a feather duster was the end you used. It would astonish Remus if James knew where such things were stored really. So that was what Remus decided he would do whilst his friends were out living the life he apparently was not entitled to. And besides, as he couldn't contribute any money towards the running of the house, he had to earn his keep somehow.

* * *

Peter sat nervously in a reception room above a shop in Diagon Alley, picking at the worn cuticles on his left hand with his right. His feet were bobbing up and down anxiously as he waited for the manager of the Magical Menagerie to call him for his interview. He was sat with several other people, all applying for the same position, all probably much better suited for a job in which you had to be confident enough to talk to people and try to sell them things. Animals to be precise.

A few of the other candidates he recognised from Hogwarts. He had greeted them with a sureness, knowing that, in Hogwarts, he had carried a much higher status in popularity than they had. But, sadly, as their first question to him was to enquire how James Potter, Sirius Black and 'that Remus Lupin guy' were all getting on and whether they were still in contact, he was forcefully reminded that the only reason he had been even half way up the social scale, was because of them. He had then lost any ounce of assurance he had, backed away as soon as he could and sat down to wait, glancing enviously at times over to the Hogwarts alumni wishing he had never said hello to them in the first place. He was reminded enough of how lame he was every day from his mother and unintentionally by his friends. He didn't need it from people he only recognised in passing.

'Peter Pettigrew?' called the manager from a slightly open door which, assumedly, led to an adjoining office.

Peter stood up and scurried over, leaving the others behind him and not turning back. He didn't need them to make him any more nervous than he already was. He entered the office and heard the door shut behind him. This was it.

'Please, take a seat.' the manager said, gesturing to a rickety chair in front of a scuffed and splintered desk whilst he took the one behind. It was a different guy than the one who had banned Sirius from the store a few weeks ago for making a scene.

'Thank you.' Peter answered timidly.

'My names Clarence Hopgrass.' the manager said, setting out the application form that Peter had filled and handed in weeks ago on the desk in front of him. He also had a parchment pad with a quill and ink pot next to it. But he didn't pick them up. Instead he folded his arms on the desk, leaning forwards slightly, and looked Peter in the eye. 'I'm the head manager of the store here. Now, how are you today?'

'I'm…fine.' Peter swallowed.

Hopgrass looked down at Peters application. 'It says here that you are applying for the sales assistant position today. Is there any particular reason why you think you'd be good at the job?' he asked.

Peter paused. Would he be good at the job? No. Simply put he was sure that he would be a complete disaster at it. But he had to say something. A short answer would probably be his best bet. 'Yes.' he said.

'Would you like to elaborate?' Hopgrass hinted.

'No.' Peter replied, unable to get the hint. He had never been very good at picking up hidden messages in words.

Hopgrass' fingers hovered near the quill. Then he thought better of it and instead, just moved the application form further in front of him. 'You received an E in your N.E.W.T's Care of Magical Creatures exam at Hogwarts is that correct?'

'Yes.' Peter said. He was once again playing nervously with the skin around his cuticles on his left hand.

Hopgrass paused. 'Care to elaborate?' he asked, gesturing Peter to do so.

'No.' Peter said.

Sighing, Hopgrass got up. 'I'm afraid I cannot offer you the position today.' he said, giving Peter no more time in what he could see was going to be a timewasting interview. He held out his hand for Peter to shake. 'Thank you very much for your interest in this position and if-'

'I take care of a werewolf.' Peter blurted out. His watery eyes fixed themselves onto Hopgrass' green ones.

'Excuse me?' Hopgrass questioned.

'I take care of a werewolf.' Peter repeated, for once trying to think off of the top of his head. What would James do in this situation? That was the question he was asking himself. James was, nine times out of ten, rather good at making up lies right on the spot. Things that would make someone think twice about what they were doing. And it seemed that Mr Hopgrass' interest had been piqued. 'A werewolf, a rat, a stag and a…a dog.' Peter said, stumbling over his words a little but still managing to get them out. 'I… I look after them. All. I help them really…Please I need this. I like animals. I want to take care of them. I take care of a werewolf.'

Peter was breathing heavily and his eyes seemed to be pleading with Hopgrass to such a point that the man seemed to think twice and slowly returned to his seat. 'Please.' he said, 'Tell me more.'

Peter sighed with relief. Relief that his interview wasn't over after all, that he could salvage it and that he still had a chance.

* * *

Lily stood in a quick moving line, desperate to register her arrival with whoever was at the desk and get directions to the room in which her induction onto the course would be. She was in St Mungos Hospital on the first floor where everybody arrived through an abandoned building in muggle London. It really was fascinating to see them appear from, seemingly, nowhere on this side of the building. Sure she had been a witch her whole life, known about it much earlier than most muggle born witches thanks to Severus, but it still amazed her things that magic could do. And she couldn't wait to learn more. And, secretly, she hoped, to make some new friends.

She wasn't ungrateful for what she had. In fact she couldn't feel more blessed with her circle of friends. She loved Alice and Frank. She loved Remus, Sirius and Peter. And lord knows she loved James. But, for some unexplainable reason, she felt stuck. And that wasn't something she wanted to feel. It was probably because, within the space of about three years, from her fifth year at Hogwarts to her seventh, she had lost two best friends. Her childhood friend down the street from her, who had helped her learn about the wizarding world long before she received her Hogwarts letter, and her best friend at Hogwarts with whom she had shared a dorm room along with her deepest secrets. Both of those friendships had turned dark in the worst way. They seemed irreparable. She had lost the ones who knew her best. Of course, now that person was James but, she couldn't help but want a few more people in her life who she shared this type of deep connection with.

She could either be with James and the marauders or Alice who invariably had Frank with her. It was nice to have two solid parties to go to. But she did want a few more. If she said it out loud though, she might be hated for it, for taking the people she already had in her life for granted. She really didn't though. She was so thankful to have her friends, her boyfriend. They were all brilliant to her. She couldn't ask for more. But she was. And she hated herself for it. No matter how hard she had tried in the past to get rid of these thoughts, she had been unsuccessful. So now the opportunity to do something about it, to try and make new friends, was here, she wasn't going to waste it. Perhaps attempting to branch out would be the only way to banish her wonderings.

A group of girls joined the queue behind her. She could hear them talking. Hear their whole conversation in fact because they were very loud. Of course they had to be in St Mungo's as the hustle and bustle around them was deafening but still they could have kept their conversation volume to a minimum.

Lily cursed herself. Instead of reprimanding them in her head about talking loudly in a place where they were perfectly entitled to do so, she should be trying to talk to them. After all, that was how you made new friends. You spoke to them. You found common ground and only through this would she find the connection she was after. And she was going to. Until they said her name.

'Lily Evans I think?' one girl said. She was from up north. Somewhere like Liverpool. Her accent was thick so it was hard to register Lily's name at first but, as the girls went on with their conversation, it was clear to Lily that they were, indeed, talking about her.

'The one who went out with James Potter?' said a Scottish sounding girl.

They were obviously from Hogwarts. Lily hadn't actually thought about that. Almost everyone on this course was going to be from Hogwarts. They would have heard and believed rumours about her. This would make it very hard to start fresh and make new friends.

'Didn't they break up?' said another.

_They're multiplying_, Lily thought to herself. If it wasn't bad enough that they were talking about her right behind her back, loud enough for her to hear, there was a huge group of them doing it. More than she had thought there were at first. If she ever thought that the Hogwarts gossip was behind her now and she would never have to relieve it, then she was clearly wrong. And it frustrated her to the point of breaking.

'You think everyone's broken up Nellie.' the Liverpudlian girl said to the girl in question.

'No I don't.' Nellie defended herself, 'But I'm sure they broke up. After what she did, what Hestia told us about…'

'Actually I heard that too.' the Scottish girl put in, 'That was terrible what she did though. I don't blame him.'

Lily took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down. She knew what they were on about. Well…not exactly. When she and Hestia stopped being friends after James had told Lily the marauders big secret and Lily had accidently told Hestia who in turn caused a huge, prejudice, dramatic scene about it all, Lily knew that Hestia had put out a reason as to why they had stopped being friends. She had never heard what this reason was though. Apparently it was bad and apparently, it painted Lily as a villain and Hestia a victim, but she still didn't know what it was. James had refused to tell her. She doubted he ever would and he would have made the other marauders swear to keep it from her as well, not wanting to upset her. Or anger her. Lily didn't know which. She didn't care anymore. She just cared that there were people out there, right behind her in fact, who were still going on about it and thinking it was their business. _This _was why she had few real friends, ones she would trust with her secrets and life. Ones who she wanted to know her business unlike these girls behind her.

'I swear they didn't break up.' said the only girl who seemed to have her facts straight, the one who had called Nellie by name.

'Why don't we just ask her then?' Nellie suggested.

'No way !' the Scottish girl objected, 'If they have broken up good.'

They moved forwards in the queue. There was only one person in front of Lily now.

'And if James Potter in on the market again then I don't want to be known as talking to bloody Lily Evans of all people!' the Scottish girl went on, 'It's just unnecessary baggage that slows you down on the way to the bedroom if you know what I mean.'

_Perhaps having a lot of friends is overrated, _Lily thought. She should stop thinking she needed more and just ensure the ones she had knew how much they meant to her. Form that connection with them. Get closer to Alice, closer than they were. As close as she used to be with Hestia. Hang out with the boys without James. Get closer to Sirius. Or Remus. Just form whatever connection she was after with the people who had already proved themselves far too worthy of her trust and friendship.

'We all know what you mean Midge.' said the only unnamed girl. 'And, to be honest, I think we all had the same idea.'

The girls all giggled, synchronised in their annoying high pitched laughs which made Lily want to turn around and punch them all in the face. But she couldn't do that because now, she was first in the queue.

She stepped forwards ready to talk to the witch behind the desk. She smiled broadly at her, genuine and true, because it was Jane Potter behind that desk and she had clearly overheard what the girls behind Lily had been saying about her son. She looked ready to kill. But upon seeing Lily, she also broke into a genuine smile.

'Lily dear!' she greeted her, 'Haven't seen you in a while.'

Lily could see the girls faces in her head. Confused. They would look confused at this witches greeting of Lily. And they were about to look ashamed and guilty as Lily made a very James move at this point, one similar to when he had found her on a second fake date with Joshua Hunt and had purposefully gotten closer to her at the bar just to piss him off. Lily had clearly hung out with him far too much. He was such a bad influence!

'Hello Mrs Potter.' Lily said evenly, ensuring every delicious syllable was well heard by the girls behind her, 'I haven't seen you in a while either. You've not been there when I've been round.' she went on. She wasn't a bitchy person but when there were people who were talking loudly about her, right behind her, well…her red-headed temper and fiery nature took control. She couldn't help but savour the thought of what those poor girls' faces must look like now.

'I know but I've been swamped with work.' Jane Potter said, taking a piece of parchment from the stack next to her and picking up her quill. She dipped it in ink and started to write Lily's details down on the form, knowing them by heart thanks to her lunch with Lily weeks ago and because of how James had gone about her whenever they had the chance to sit down and have a family meal. For Jane, it was nice to see him so happy.

'How come?' Lily asked politely.

'Everyone seems to be disappearing with mysterious illnesses.' Jane said with a bit of a derisive tone. She clearly didn't believe it. 'Personally, I think half of them are just terrified to come into work recently. We had a few genuine disappearances a while back on the fourth floor.' she went on.

'Oh my God!' Lily gasped, suddenly no longer interested in what the girls behind her were thinking about. Her petty problems with ever haunting gossip from Hogwarts wasn't important. There were things happening in the world, terrifying things and if Lily ever thought that her problems or her life was of a higher precedence than sorting them out then she seriously needed to sort out her priorities. 'What happened?' Lily asked.

'I can't really discuss it Lily dear but it was a while back so I'm sure it's all been sorted by now.' Jane said, dropping the volume of her voice a bit. 'Will you be coming round after your induction?'

'Probably.' Lily replied, loving how Mrs Potter was helping her, purposefully or not, in her crusade to put the girls gossiping to shame. But it wasn't prominent in her mind anymore. Now she just wanted to know what had happened on the fourth floor of St Mungos never mind how long ago it may have been. What had Voldemort and his forces set in motion? And why hadn't it been reported in the Daily Prophet?

'Please do.' Jane said, putting the form she had filled out for Lily onto an ever-growing pile just to the left of her desk. She picked up a large envelope from the pile next to this and wrote Lily's name and the identification number she had given her in some boxes on the front of it. 'After James' induction to the auror programme today, I won't be able to deal with his excitement on my own. And then there's Sirius to contend with too. He's just as bad. He's like a dog with a bone.'

Lily laughed. Mostly because Jane Potter couldn't see the irony in her words. 'I'll come help you out.' Lily smiled, taking the envelope off of Jane Potter. It was heavy. 'The trick with Sirius is to give him pie.'

'Yes that does seem to shut him up.' Jane laughed, 'If only James had a trigger.'

Lily thought. 'I'll think of something.' she said slyly.

'Great.' Jane beamed before getting back to business. 'Right. You need to go to the fifth floor to the visitors tea room and go through the door marked 'Staff Only'. There's a badge in your pack which you need to wear to go through the door. When you're in there, an identification photo will be taken and transferred onto the badge. They will direct you from there.'

'Brilliant. Thank you Mrs Potter.' Lily said.

'You're welcome dear.' Jane smiled. The smile faded though when she called 'Next' and one of the girls behind Lily stepped forwards to register themselves.

As Lily walked away from the line. She looked over her shoulder to see the one of the girls looking nervously at Jane Potter and the other two enviously over at Lily. She looked back to her path to the elevator and smirked to herself. Her victorious state was short lived though, because as soon as she got into the lift and pressed the button for the fifth floor, she noticed the button for the fourth floor and her mind couldn't help but drift back to that place of curiosity, wondering what exactly had happened there. Who had gone missing? Why had they disappeared? And why hadn't anything been publicised? Was anyone doing anything about it?

* * *

When James and Sirius arrived at the Ministry of Magic, they found Alice and Frank and together, went to line up in a similar queue as Lily had herself stood in at St Mungos. The only difference between their queues was the length of time they were in them. Lily was only in the line for registration for mere moments until the extremely efficient Jane Potter saw her and handed her a welcome pack. James, Sirius, Alice and Frank however were lined up for a tiresome three hours before they could even see the inept and lazy man who was supposed to be signing them in for the induction. The signing in itself, though it only took Mrs Potter less than five minutes for each individual who came up to her desk, took this guy at least twenty minutes per person. Granted, he was rather old with white wispy hair and large round glasses which magnified his bright blue eyes a dozen times, but it was still rather annoying to them all.

They had all been told to arrive at nine o'clock promptly, but by the time they had managed to make their way into the conference room on the second floor where all the auror office was located, it had reached half past one. According to the schedule they had been given, they were meant to be on a lunch break by now but unfortunately, they had been told that due to time restrictions, they were no longer allowed one. Sirius, of course, was not best pleased by this, had stood up and threatened to walk out of the room. If he had done this at Hogwarts, many of the teachers would have just looked the other way whilst he scoffed down a Honeydukes chocolate bar and the class would continue as though nothing had happened. Here however, the woman conducting the induction, (Karen Williamson presumably as that was the name written on the chalkboard on the wall behind her), just told Sirius to leave. And if he left, he wasn't to come back again. She said it in such a way that there was a tangible sense of awkwardness in the air as the woman stared Sirius down until he had no choice but to hang his head in shame and sit back down next to James who unwisely laughed.

'Please take out your expected criteria list, your equipment list, your reading list, your code of conduct list, your schedules, your quills, ink, and your parchment books.' Williamson said matter-of factly. She looked to be in her mid-thirty's, far too young in James' opinion to be training the next generation of aurors. Really someone who was the age his father would have been now would have been better teaching this course. Perhaps Alastor Moody. He was a good auror. James had heard many great stories about him from eavesdropping on his parents conversations through the years. Why he wasn't teaching this course, James would never know. At least not yet.

James opened the welcome pack that the doddery old man at the registration desk had given him and tipped the contents of it onto the table. He didn't have a quill with him or any ink, let alone a parchment book. He hadn't realised he had needed them. But looking around the room, it seemed that he and Sirius, (who hadn't brought these things along either), were the only ones.

The room they were in wasn't particularly large but a good twenty or so students were all squashed comfortably into it, all sitting in rows of chairs behind rows of tables. James and Sirius had sat at the back of the room with Alice and Frank. James kept his fingers crossed that Williamson couldn't see the fact that he was asking Alice and Frank for spare quills for himself and Sirius along with ink and parchment. He had thought he had gotten away with it as well but there was something in Williamson's brief glance towards them before she started to speak again that made him think twice.

'Let's start with the code of conduct.' Williamson said, picking up a book from a desk pushed against the wall next to the chalk board and opening it up to a bookmarked page. 'All witches and wizards who elect to undertake the Ministry of Magic approved auror qualification training programme must adhere to the following code of conduct.'

Williamson droned on, reading aloud the twenty something rules that came with taking the programme James and Sirius were beginning. Around the eighth point however – 'aurors in training are to report any criminal offences against the Ministry of Magic to either the head of the auror department, or the leader of the Ministry of Magic approved auror qualification training programme, before any further action can be taken. Upon reporting said criminal offences, the auror in training in question must then submit a full report on the subject matter as well as a conclusive statement explaining what action they would take in the situation if they were allowed to partake such exploits. This course of action however, is nullified in situations of life and/or death upon which, the auror in training must report a full account justifying their means' - James and Sirius became bored of listening and instead, turned their attention to rating the thirteen or so girls who were in the room.

They were quite happily doing this, (even though James did feel a bit guilty about it and worried as Alice was the closest friend Lily had and she could obviously hear him), until Williamson called them out to answer a question.

James and Sirius looked at each other in confusion before James had the guts to ask what the question was.

'If you had been listening,' she said impatiently, 'you would know that I questioned you on which area of study we discipline you the most in during your first year. If you had been listening, you would know that we focus primarily on the theoretical side of the training programme and if you had been listening, you would know that you are given regular tests in this subject area to ensure you have gained the knowledge you need to be able to perform, not an adequate attempt at a defensive spell, but a spectacular one.' she said. She clearly wasn't finished though.

James sat with his mouth partly open, as did Sirius, both unable to take in the fact that they had arrived in this, for lack of a better word, 'class' and within the hour, they were already in trouble. All eyes in the room were on them. Considering their reputations at Hogwarts, their mischievousness, the fact that they regularly had detention and were always nuisances to their teachers, they should have been used to the class staring at them, and they were. In fact, at Hogwarts, they had thrived on it. And they were more often than not, able to talk the class _and _their professors into loving them for their disruptive antics. But this felt different. These were not adoring glances and Williamson definitely didn't love them.

She continued. 'However, clearly you haven't been listening. Clearly, you haven't been paying attention or even brought your own equipment with you. Clearly, you believe that rating the poor girls in this room on a scale of one to ten based on their outer attractiveness is a much better use of your time than listening to this crucial information which will in fact help you through the next three years of your lives.'

James should have been listening to this too, word for word. But all he could think of though was how this woman really liked to talk in threes. Three 'if you had been listening's'. Three 'clearly's'. He had to hold back a laugh as he thought of what she was going to triple up on next.

'Not only is this degrading to the young women in this room who are here to learn.' Williamson went on, 'Not only is this misogynistic and offensive for you to do, not to mention rude whilst I am speaking…'

Apparently she was repeating 'not only's' now. James tried his hardest not to laugh.

'And not only will this get you nowhere in life but it will also get you nowhere in my class. And I will _not _stand for it.' Williamson finished speaking solely to James and Sirius. Now she addressed the whole class. 'I am not like your professors at school.' she stated, 'I am not your friend, here to encourage you when you are struggling. I am not afraid to kick you out of this training programme. And if I kick you out…Don't. Bother. Coming. Back.'

James' laughter left him. Instead he looked at Sirius and Sirius looked at him. They both gulped. They definitely weren't at Hogwarts now. And this was not going to be what they thought it would.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Review if you'd like!**

**Next update on the 13th of June cause hey, I'm a rebel and like to tempt fate by updating on Friday the 13th! :p**

**Galindaba**


	10. Chapter 9

**Hey everyone!**

**I am so sorry this is a day late but updating on Friday the 13th wasn't my best idea. I'm not a superstitious person. I have two black cats and walk under ladders all the time and cross on the stairs and such. But there was a power cut down my street yesterday and damn that feels like bad joo joo. :/ Something supernatural definitely went on there.**

**So sorry for the late update. :(**

**But thank you to all my reviewers so far! It always boosts your confidence to write when you know people like it so thank you for your lovely comments! :)**

**Here's Chapter Nine! I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

Lily dove straight into her healer training. She immediately bought all the books and supplies her welcome pack which Jane Potter handed to her at the registration desk, said she would be needing. She had also gone down to the stationary shop in the town where she lived and bought herself, (using the money her father had given her as she technically had none of her own), five packs of coloured notelets, tubs upon tubs of notice board push pins and, of course, a huge notice board to put it all on because she didn't have one in her room already. She hadn't needed one before as she had been at Hogwarts and, when at home, she hadn't needed to do any work. But she was now living at home full time whilst she was taking her training programme. So now she had plenty of work to do there and needed a way to organise it so she could see what she was doing next.

Of course, she had to accommodate the fact that a lot of the work she was doing on her own would be practical. She would need to practice making medicinal potions and other things. She would also need to practice her enchantments and healing spells. She couldn't very well just set out her cauldron at the dining room table and be waving her wand around willy-nilly in the living room. One reason being her mother wouldn't allow it. The other being that Petunia and Vernon had taken to popping round a couple evenings a week now for tea and Lily knew that if either of them got the slightest whiff that something magical or 'freaky' was going on, they would not be happy. So, for a lot of the time, she was holed up in her room which had very suddenly shrank in size thanks to the measures she had taken to ensure she had all the room she needed.

She had rearranged her entire bedroom to such an extent that her only 'personal space' was on her bed. And that wasn't much use for company so she hadn't been able to have Alice or James over since their courses began a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, they were both in the same situation. She hadn't seen either of them, especially Alice, for a while and Lily was hoping for a catch up soon but, the future didn't look too bright for that to happen in. Mostly it looked like textbooks, research, healing incantations, potion ingredients and her cauldron. And that was only because that was literally all you could see in her room. It was so cluttered that her parents didn't even attempt to come in anymore but instead spoke to her through the door and, when she went out for meals, she simply apparated down into the kitchen. It was much easier than attempting to make her way through her very own obstacle course. Though with each 'pop' of her apparition, her Dad still jumped.

Richard Evans may have been jumpy when Lily apparated but, for him, it was far more preferable to have her holed up in her room studying, training to be a healer, only apparating down for mealtimes and only leaving the house to go to class than knowing she was over at James' god-knows-where doing god-knows-what. It had been a year now and he still didn't approve very much of the boy. In his opinion, he was trouble. He didn't believe that somebody who used to be that cruel could change to the extent that his youngest daughter, the smartest of all the Evans', would agree to go out with him. He just thought that James had tricked her somehow, though this was not the case. And no matter how many times Lily begged him to just give James a chance, (Heather too), Richard would not budge on his position towards him. He was sweet as pie to Lily whenever he wasn't around though, continuously treating her like the little girl he sent off to Hogwarts when she was eleven and only wanting to spoil her rotten. And in some ways, this was fine. But ignoring the fact that she had grown up also meant ignoring the existence of a boyfriend in her life. He was fine with that and, for the most part, it did create a peaceful atmosphere. But if James' name was mentioned…

'There's a new bookstore opening in town sweet-pea.' he said one evening when they were having dinner, just him, Lily and Heather. 'Did you know?'

Lily swallowed a mouthful of her roast dinner to answer him. 'Been a bit too preoccupied Dad.' She reached for her orange squash and drank a few sips.

'Did you want to go this weekend?' he asked her, 'I'll get you any book you want. We haven't really been out, just you and me, for a while now.'

'I know.' Lily replied, setting her glass down, 'And I would love to but I made plans with James this weekend.' She went back to eating her dinner as though nothing was wrong, and nothing was wrong. Only Richard Evans didn't see it that way. He stopped eating and put down his knife and fork.

'Can you not cancel?' he asked, 'I was really looking forwards to spending the weekend with my little girl.'

'Richard leave her be.' Heather intervened, 'She's already made plans. You can take her to the bookshop next weekend.'

'I'm working next weekend' Richard said stiffly.

'You don't work weekends dear.' Heather sighed.

'We'll go next weekend then Dad.' Lily smiled, partially amused by her Dad's oversight and partially annoyed that he was still acting this way about James. It was a bit childish really.

'That's not the point-'

'Then what is the point?' Lily interrupted her father, almost daring him to say something along the lines of his previous 'James is a rotten boy' speeches.

'I was just looking forwards to spending the weekend with you.' Richard said.

During the rest of the week, at every available opportunity afterwards, Richard made sure that Lily knew how 'upset' he was that they weren't going to have a father-daughter weekend together. If they were watching the television and an advert came on detailing some event that was happening that weekend or a fun activity at a local place, somewhere that was running an offer, he would just offhandedly mention that they could have done that at the weekend. If Lily had been craving some sort of meal, like the seaside's fish and chips, he would say that he would take her there that weekend then make a dramatic recanting of the statement. Needless to say, it went on for a while and it was constant and, thanks to the pressures that came with her healer training programme, Lily eventually had enough and in the end just told her Dad she would cancel plans with James and spend the weekend doing Daddy-Daughter activities that they used to do when she was younger, like mini-golf. All she could think about though was that it's a sad day when you realise your boyfriend can handle a change of plans far better that your father can. It's an even sadder day when you realise this unfortunately starts to become a regular occurrence to the point of breaking.

* * *

James, Sirius, Alice and Frank sat at the back of the conference room in which they had had their induction. They had been on this course for a few weeks now, marching them into October, and they had yet to lift a wand which something which James especially was not happy with. Sure he could answer all of the theoretical questions, perhaps a bit better if he had bothered to read any of the suggested material Karen Williamson had given them, but he had applied for this course with the expectation that he would be trained how to be an auror. His father had told him stories of his training days when he was alive and they were always jam-packed with funny anecdotes, jokes and practical work. He had just assumed it would be the same for him. Apparently he was wrong.

He was laughing with Sirius about the fact that Peter had actually succeeded in securing himself a job at the magical menagerie. Really they should have been proud that their friend was actually doing something to earn money and having a job in which he could get promoted, but they weren't. Instead, they found it hilarious that Peter, who had gone to the interview a few weeks ago for a shop assistant, had been given a rather different position in the shop: animal maintenance. And even though Peter had tried to explain to them all yesterday evening at the Leakey Cauldron that this meant he would be seeing to the animals cares and needs - grooming them, taking the owls out to fly and stretch their wings, taking the other creatures the store stocked outside too to run around and making sure they were fit and healthy and clean - James and Sirius simply focused on the fact that he would basically be, in their eyes, a human pooper scooper. They had teased him mercilessly all night about it, Remus never stopping them and Lily not being there to do so either. Their jokes had continued well into the night and now, they came with them to auror training burning off of the fact that, as Peter had stayed over last night, they had taken him to Diagon alley teasing him all the way, before making the trip over to the Ministry. They were making these jokes when Karen Williamson, their ruthless mentor for the auror training programme entered the room.

'Did I miss the joke?' she said disapprovingly with a glare at James and Sirius when entered the room.

James and Sirius looked at each other and rolled their eyes. They had been on this programme for not even a month yet, they only had sessions three times a week, and yet somehow Williamson had come to hate them already. She made it known in subtle ways but had never let slip the reason why. Maybe it was because they were always laughing about something or another when she entered the room. Perhaps it was because they always had their wands out when they were supposed to be learning the punishable offences that a wizard could commit as part of their basic theoretical training or, it could have just been because they had been caught eating in her sessions on several occasions and that was something she strongly disapproved of. But there were probably other things too.

Williamson went and leant on the edge of the desk that was at the front of the conference room. She stared at the faces in the room all sat on an individual chairs, today, arranged in two medium sized semi-circles, one behind the other. James and Sirius, (and Alice and Frank), were centre back. She narrowed her eyes at them.

'Did everyone study the bi-laws in the footnotes of the Ministry of Magic's Handbook of Petty Misdemeanours and Crimes?' she asked the room at large. Apart from James and Sirius, who rolled their eyes at each other again, everyone either muttered a yes or nodded their heads.

'Psst!' Sirius whispered a little loudly to James, 'What's a dis-men-nee-naw?'

James scoffed. 'You're asking me?' he chuckled silently, 'How am I meant to bloody know? Where's Remus when you need him, right?'

Sirius laughed silently back. 'Yeah tell me about it!' he said, 'I can't understand half the words this bitch uses.'

James snorted and laughed back, avoiding looking at Williamson at all costs. 'Ask Alice what it means.' he suggested.

'Good idea!' Sirius enthused. He turned to Alice who was next to Frank who was next to him. 'Psst! Alice.' he said in an exaggerated whisper to get her attention.

Alice looked at Frank who just pointed to Sirius with obvious exasperation. It was clear he was regretting sitting in between his girlfriend and his girlfriend's best friend's friends.

'What do you want Black?' Alice said in a hushed tone, trying her hardest to avoid Williamson's watchful eye.

'What does dis-men-nee-naw mean?' he asked.

Alice's expression changed to one of puzzlement. She looked at Frank for some help in decoding the word Sirius had just spouted out but he didn't know either. He just shrugged at her.

James laughed and leaned forwards so that he could see Alice. 'He means misdemeanour.' He informed Alice, 'What does misdemeanour mean-'

'Well Mr. Potter.' Williamson said from the front of the room, next to the chalk board upon which she had written book titles and page numbers along with the order of which worksheet forms they were meant to fill out first. 'If you had read the book it would have been clear to you what a misdemeanour was. If you had read the book then you would have known that it is when somebody breaks the law but whatever they have done is not strictly considered as a crime. And if you had read the book you would not have felt the need to interrupt the rest of the group with your extraordinarily _loud_ whisper.'

James looked down momentarily before attempting to explain to the woman, who only ever spoke in phrases of threes, what was actually going on. 'Karen that's not-'

'You are to call me Williamson Mr Potter. It is only respectful.' Williamson reprimanded.

James puffed out a breath of frustrated air. 'Sorry, _Williamson._' he stressed before planning to go on, 'I was just going to say-'

'Have you read the bi-laws that I specifically asked you to read for this session, Mr Potter?' Williamson cut him off.

James paused. 'No but-'

'Have you bought the book, Mr Potter?' Williamson asked.

James gulped but didn't answer.

'Have you only signed up for this training programme to waste time, Mr Potter?' she said as her final question in her set of three. 'Because it seems that way to me.'

'I didn't think that I had to get the books.' James said, trying to find the boldness he used to use on his Hogwarts professors when he had forgotten to do homework and gave his excuses. The confidence he had used on those occasions had sometimes worked in getting him out of detentions, at least with certain teachers such as his divination professor. You couldn't get away with it with McGonagall and, apparently, Williamson was a hundred times harder to get things by. She wasn't playing games. 'I thought the list of books was more of a guide line to what could be useful on this course. I thought we'd, you know, be doing practical work?' he said arrogantly.

'Why, Mr Potter, do you think I would give you a list of books to buy as a mere guideline?' Williamson questioned, 'Why did you think that you would be able to dive straight into practical work without learning by heart the laws which you will be trying to uphold in the position of an auror, the punishments, spells and enchantments used in the standard procedures which are in place or the disciplinary course of actions you are required to undertake for certain situations? Why, Mr Potter, did you think you would be exempt from learning these?'

'I didn't think I'd be 'exempt' but, you know, I'm a practical worker and I'll _learn _better-'

'You will learn better my way!' Williamson interrupted, 'I have produced generations of fine aurors by ensuring they knew all their theory before starting any practical work and, if you think you are some sort of exception to this rule, then I suggest you find another course that offers the programme you are after.'

'I don't want to find another course.' James replied through gritted teeth. He was being rude to his mentor and he knew it. But he didn't care because she hadn't exactly earned any of his respect and he was an advocate of only giving respect where it was due.

'Well then Mr Potter,' Williamson said, a small thin-lipped smile appearing on her face as it she was about to enjoy something, 'You may stay on my course however, you may not stay today. I suggest that you leave and do not return until you can arrive fully equipped for the session having read any and all source material beforehand. Do not return until you have bought all the books that are required for this course along with anything else that was listed in your welcome pack. And do not return until you have adjusted your attitude as I will no longer stand for your interruptions, your rudeness and your arrogance. You may go now.'

James sat with his mouth slightly ajar. She was kicking him out? He had only been kicked out of a class a couple of times at Hogwarts. Usually they just gave him detention or moved him away from his friends. It had never really been like this. Plus, at Hogwarts, if he was to say it wasn't him or his fault, they would more often than not hear him out and listen to his side of the story. They wouldn't cut him of mid-sentence and humiliate him in front of his class mates. Hogwarts didn't work like that. The Ministry of Magic appointed training classes apparently did though.

He leaned under his table and grabbed his bag. He stood up and slung it over his shoulder, not looking at Sirius, Alice, Frank or anyone really. He couldn't just strut out of the class as he would have done at Hogwarts because when he was there, if he was kicked out of the lesson, people would have found it amusing. They would have hailed him for it, laughed about it and praised him to a certain extent on whatever he had said or done to achieve that result. He could do no wrong. He was loved at that school and it was only now he had left that he began to appreciate his unwarranted popularity. Here he just received sneers and derisive looks; he could feel them on him. The people here, though most of them had been at Hogwarts with him, didn't treat him like royalty who could do no wrong. They didn't cheer as they had once done when he messed about or pulled pranks. They didn't seek his approval, seem desperate to be his friend, chase after him, none of it! They didn't even laugh at his jokes. They weren't interested and it actually annoyed him somewhat.

The door shut behind him and he heard Williamson go on with her seminar. He stood there for a second listening to her and realising angrily that she would expect him to do whatever work they were doing today in his own time. He scowled and walked down the corridor to the caged lift to the atrium at the end. He stepped inside it and stood amongst Ministry officials, some of whom were looking at him rather suspiciously as if they knew what had just happened. He tried to ignore them but, when he did, he entered his own thoughts and as he was angry, it was a very dangerous place to be right now.

What bugged him most though was that he genuinely hadn't done anything worthy of being kicked out of the class. It was Sirius who was asking about the word. And Sirius didn't have the books or anything like that either. And yet, it was only him who was told to leave. It really ticked him off. It just added to other things in his life which he had no control over, that were frustrating him endlessly, and that, for the most part, he couldn't fix.

The lift stopped in the Ministry of Magic's atrium, a ground floor of sorts from which you could go anywhere within the place. It was the centre, some might say, of the working wizarding world. In the middle of the marble clad floor was a huge fountain with five large golden statues in the middle of it: a wizard, a witch, a centaur, a goblin and a house elf. There were throngs of people rushing by it, urgently trying to get to where they were supposed to be or just strolling along casually as they were on a break. A few of the passers-by stopped at the fountain. Some of them just stared at its grandeur before continuing on their way whilst others stopped and sat along the wall around it. A few threw loose change, knuts or sickles, into the water absentmindedly. James sighed as he looked over at it before he headed that way to join those few who had taken a couple of minutes out of their day to sit around the circular pool of water.

He ended up sitting next to a middle aged wizard in a raggedy blue velvet robe who was eating a sandwich. He moved moments after James sat down though as, in a momentary burst of the anger that was pooling inside his chest, he had slapped the water of the fountain which unfortunately splashed over in the man's direction, soaking his sandwich. As he hurried off, James shouted an empty apology over to him. He didn't mean it. He didn't care that he has ruined the man's lunch because Williamson, along with Sirius to a certain extent, had ruined his entire day.

It was supposed to be a good day. He was going to come in for his class, get that over and done with, then he, Remus and Sirius were going to make the trip down to Hogsmeade and visit Zonko's for the first time in ages. Then possibly go to the three broomsticks and have a drink. It was going to be the night, he and Remus had decided, that they acclimate Sirius' palate to fire whisky once and for all. They had all agreed he was a bit of a baby when it came down to it, having only ever had it on his birthday and then complaining about it ever since. It was an acquired taste and he had never given it a chance. As a wizard, it was a rite of passage. Plus, ordering two fire whisky's and one daisyroot draught was a bit embarrassing. But now that was all ruined. James couldn't drink if he was angry. He really needed a way to calm down and being alone, for some reason, wasn't working as it usually did.

The golden statue in the fountain reflected in the ripples James had made when he had frustratedly moved the water. He stared down at the reflection and then to the piles of knuts and sickles in the water. There were a few galleons here and there as well but not many. People threw coins into the fountain for odd reasons in James' opinion. The coins were all meant to go to St Mungo's to help fund the hospital but he sincerely doubted that was really the case. He thought some of them looked as though they'd been in there for years, rusting. But people didn't care about that. They didn't throw the coins into the well to help any of the sick and injured people over at St Mungo's right now. No. They threw them into the fountain to serve their own needs; to feel good about themselves for doing something charitable or to make a wish in the hope that it would come true and make life better for themselves. James had one wish right now but he didn't need to throw a coin into a fountain to help him make it come true. He could do it all by himself and he had to do it all by himself. Besides, it was the only thing that he could think of that could possibly calm him down.

* * *

Lily stood up from the desk she had been using in the room where her healer training took place. She picked up her bag and looped it around her neck so that it hung securely down from one shoulder then picked up the three books she'd been using to do research on which potions and balms were most effective when treating contagious skin diseases and infections. It had been rather boring today for the most part as their second mentor who was supposed to train them in areas such as these had decided that coming in today would be a waste of his time, especially as there were tickets available to him for a Quidditch game that afternoon. Apparently, watching a bunch of witches and wizards flap after an assortment of balls was far more important than training the future of the wizarding worlds health system. Lily could see why…not. But she wasn't going to waste the day like a few of the other trainees had done. She was determined to do something.

Whilst a few of the girls in her class, like Nellie and Midge, had decided to go shopping instead and a couple of the boys had announced they were going to join their mentor at the Quidditch game, (Barton versus Pride of Portee), Lily had decided to pay a visit to Mrs Potter and ask her if there was anything useful that she recommend she look at. At first, as Jane Potter was up to her elbows in work, looking very worn and tired, Lily felt guilty about interrupting her for such a mundane and, probably, unimportant question. But Jane was more than happy to give Lily a few suggestions and then send her on her way, no fuss or complaint. She had told her there had been an outbreak of boils and, humorously to Lily, cornflake skin, and recommended that she look into potions and things such as Butterfly Weed balm; find out the method in making things, why they're useful, any side effects, etc. So Lily thanked her and did just that, returning to the fifth floor just near the visitors tea room in the 'staff only' section of the hospital. It was specifically used for trainees and when she settled herself in there she buried herself in books.

She did this for a solid three hours, sat in the room reading, underlining, making notes and ignoring the other few people who had also decided that they would use this time wisely instead of bunking off. It was only when these people all got up, partially as a group but some as individuals, stating in passing that it was time for a lunch break, (the one they would have been given if their mentor had shown up), that Lily had decided to stop. She too would go for some food too, possibly joining her class mates, something she felt rather good about doing today. The ones who were left behind were the sort of people who seemed like her speed. If she could talk to them and get to know them, maybe healer training would be all the better for it. And so she made her way to the door, bag secure and books in hand. However, they didn't stay in her grasp very long for almost as soon as she was out of the room, they were taken off of her.

'Why do you have so many?'

Lily looked up to see who had taken her books. It was James. For some unknown reason. Lily looked at him in confusion as she said, 'Because I need to do research and having lots of different takes on something helps widen your knowledge.'

'Wow.' James smirked, 'You're far too smart for me!'

'I know.' Lily replied, actually a little irritated he had turned up. 'What are you doing here?' She asked him as they started towards the door that led out into the visitor's tea room, 'And how did you get back here? It's staff only!'

'Ahh so maybe you're not too smart for me!' James teased, winking at her as she looked at him with one raised eyebrow. He laughed. 'I stole a badge from some ponce outside the door.' he explained, moving Lily's books to be under just one arm and reaching in his pocket for the stolen badge. He showed it to Lily.

'James!' Lily reprimanded, practically snatching the badge from him. She looked at the name and the picture. Thomas Ralston it read. He had tanned skin, brown eyes and brown hair. His nose was crooked as if it had been broken and left in disrepair. His photo showed him looking at the camera quickly then turning away then looking back and staring angrily. Lily didn't recognise him at all but nevertheless, she would find the boy and give him back his badge. He would need it to get back through to the training room. If James left now she'd still go through with her plan to sit with her classmates and then give the badge back as a conversation starter. But she sensed he wasn't going anywhere any time soon. She had to wonder why the hell he had turned up.

The couple reached the end of the corridor and James opened the door leading to the tea room, holding it open for Lily. 'So err...' he began. He hadn't seen her properly in a while. Not since after their inductions onto their perspective programmes which was three weeks ago now. 'I see you didn't have a tutor in there.'

'No I didn't' Lily said, making her way to one of the tables she frequented near a big window, looking briefly at the rest of the healer students over at the other side of the room. She sighed as she took a seat away from the group but with James. 'He decided not to come in today.' she went on, 'He went to watch a Quidditch game.'

'Cool which one?' James asked, sitting down opposite her and watching her take out a plastic box from her bag. She had brought a packed lunch with her. A pasta salad.

'One where they fly on brooms.' Lily replied with a sarcastic smile.

'Ha!' James chuckled, 'Yeah.' He paused. 'So…no tutor?'

'No tutor.' Lily grimaced as she started to dig around in the front pocket of her bag for a fork.

'Great!' James clapped his hands together once, 'Then let's go! I'll take you for lunch.'

'I have lunch James.' Lily replied, unable to find her fork. 'Why are you here anyway? Don't you have training today as well?' She tried a different pocket for her fork.

'I err…kinda got kicked out.' James said quickly, 'So! Lunch?'

'No. What?' Lily said, her search for the elusive fork halting suddenly. 'You got kicked out? For, like, ever?'

'No not forever.' James said waving away her worry, 'Just for today. At least I think so anyway…So! Lunch?'

'James _stop_ with the lunch.' Lily said frustratedly, putting her bag on the floor and pushing her salad out of the way so that she could lean forwards to James and lower her voice. She was concerned now. 'What happened?'

James rolled his eyes, shrugged largely and heaved a sigh. 'She just…doesn't like me. I didn't buy or read the books she suggested and neither did Sirius because we thought we'd be doing practical work and, you know, actually learning how to catch dark wizards like it says in the job description. But Williamson has us reading and writing useless crap about the 'bi-laws' which is _so _boring! Really it's no wonder we don't do it! So Sirius was asking Alice a dumb question about the title of one of them which she only decided to overhear when I corrected him on how he was saying misdemeanour cause he was saying dis-meh-nee-naw and even though it was _his_ stupid question _I _was the one who was kicked out. How is that fair?'

'Well technically you both should have been kicked out.' Lily said offhandedly.

'Exactly!' James said with a large agreeing hand gesture before realising what she had said. 'Wait. What?'

'You both should have been kicked out.' Lily repeated, 'You've volunteered to take this course and your treating it as if, I don't know…your mums asked you to do the dishes.'

'She has?' James wondered, 'Damn I miss Linda.'

'No, you're not listening.' Lily said with a bit of an irritated sigh. 'I was using that as an example. Look, you wanted to do this course right?'

James nodded reluctantly.

'And,' she pressed on, 'you know that there are others out there who wanted to do this course as well but aren't able to because they didn't get the grades or have a situation that prevents them from being accepted; aka Remus.'

James shifted uncomfortably.

'And yet, you think that just skating by as you did at Hogwarts, doing the bare minimum to help towards your qualification and not doing every possible thing you could do to help yourself get there quicker is a good idea?' Lily asked. 'It's not right James. She asked you to do something and she wasn't saying it for the benefit of her health. She's trying to help you and if you can't see that…'

'But she does hate me.' James complained, 'I know she does.'

'So what?' Lily countered. 'So what if she hates you and thinks that you're not going to do any work or read the books she asks or practice what she wants you to do. You're proving her right and giving her reason to. What you've got to do is prove her wrong.'

For some reason, she felt a bit distant from James and that was probably to do with the fact that she hadn't seen him in a while. And whilst it wasn't his fault that he had turned up on the day Lily had gathered her confidence to sit with new people, a tiny bit of her resented him for it even though it didn't make sense. She felt a bit bad about being a little harsh with him and so tried to make her words seem kinder towards him and held his hand so that they might connect again. As soon as she did, she needn't put effort into making her words sound loving for blood surged to her hand and sent tingles through her spine at the contact. She had really missed touching him.

'Just buy the books.' Lily said softly, 'Read them. Don't take this opportunity for granted.'

James looked down at her hand on his and clasped it tightly. He got what she was saying but it kind of annoyed him because it meant that he was wrong. And James hated to be in the wrong because he hated feeling guilty. It wasn't a nice feeling.

'You know how much Remus would have wanted to be on this course. And watching you practically throw it away because you can't be bothered to put in the tiniest bit of effort will be hard for him.' Lily said.

That hit James. Remus would have loved to have been accepted onto the auror training programme. He had applied for it and, although he tried to mask it with indifference and a prior knowledge of the results, he had been extremely disappointed about being rejected. And there James was, and Sirius, messing around, hanging out in bars or flying around James' personal Quidditch pitch instead of taking the time to actually show their enthusiasm for their course or do the work. It wasn't right and it definitely wasn't fair on Remus to have to watch them throw an opportunity down the toilet that he would have killed to have, simply because they were too lazy or felt they had other more important, more exciting, more _fun_ things to do.

'You're right.' James conceded, 'You're absolutely right.'

'I know.' Lily smiled.

They sat there for a couple of minutes in a little bit of silence. James held her hand in his and found he didn't want to let it go, mostly because, he hadn't held her for a while. She was always changing plans on him recently. He wasn't sure why. And he really didn't want to read too much into it but he did know that if they didn't hang out properly soon, he just might start too. He might take a small insignificant thing, blow it out of proportion and ruin everything to prove a point. He really didn't want to think about that happening.

'Can I take you to dinner tonight?' he asked her. 'I promise I'll buy the books now and let you finish whatever you were doing before. I just want to spend some time with you.'

Lily smiled sadly at him. 'I know.' she said, repeating her line from before. 'And I want to spend some time with you too. Be_lieve_ me. I just…can't tonight.'

James sighed dejectedly and the grasp he had on her hand loosened a little before coming undone completely. He ran his hand through his hair instead, searching for something to do with it. 'Sure.' he muttered.

'I would if I could but Petunia and Vernon are coming over to mum and dads for tea tonight to share some 'big news' with us.' Lily explained, 'And I would invite you but…Petunia. And my Dad. Not to mention Vernon and his view on me let alone you.'

Again, there was just silence.

'I'd have you round.' she half-whispered, almost trying to make up for the fact that he couldn't come over or she couldn't come out. 'I promise…another day.'

'Sure.' James repeated, hating the fact that his faith in 'another day' seemed to be missing. Three weeks shouldn't have caused this.

'Please don't hate me.' she pleaded.

James exhaled and looked at her straight in the eyes. He wondered how it was possible that in only a few short weeks they had come to felt so distant and out of touch. Especially considering how close they had become just recently in every sense of the word. He missed her so much and yet she sat right in front of him. He had thought coming to see her today after his unfortunate auror class was cut short would make him feel better. He thought that, as disappearing didn't seem to want to work for him today, sorting his feelings out that way as he usually did, seeing Lily would do. But it didn't. Instead it just made him ache.

'I don't hate you.' James smiled with a half-hearted shrug of the shoulders. 'I love you. And I miss you. That's all.'

Lily nodded her head. She looked at her watch. 'I'd better get back to class then and continue with my research.' She stood up and placed her hand on his cheek, looking down at him as he looked up, and kissed him momentarily on the lips. 'I love you too. And I will see you soon. I _promise_. In the meantime…I'll write.' she said, 'Okay?'

'Okay.' James replied. Then she walked away and he watched her go. He wanted her to come back.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**The next update will be on the 19th June!**

**Galindaba**


	11. Chapter 10

**Hey everyone!**

**I have just the one chapter for you today I'm afraid. But I am also posting a one-shot called Excalibur so if you want to, check that out as well. It's about when Harry's just been born and the marauders are visiting Lily and James in the hospital.**

**I'd just like to say thanks to the people who reviewed my last chapter: naturalme9, Clozza and Guest. Thanks guys! They made my day! :)**

**Anyway, here's Chapter Ten! I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

Albus Dumbledore swept through the halls of Hogwarts in the dead of the night when all the students under his protection at the magical school were supposedly asleep. He made his way down to the main gates of the school, through the winding passages he had known since he was eleven and out the doors to trek across the grounds until he met them. They were wrought iron and heavy as gold, something which no mere man could open on his own. However, with a swift flick of his wand, the gates opened smoothly and quietly for Dumbledore. It was with another wave of his wand that the they closed again, a barely audible clash that signifying that it had been done. He looked up at the castle with its turrets and odd architecture, the winged boars atop the pillars either side of the gates looking menacing and protective. He wouldn't be gone long and he was only heading down to the Three Broomsticks. But in a time like this when everything was far more dangerous than anyone really knew, he couldn't help but worry about the lives of everyone and everything inside the fortress of Hogwarts. Hopefully, the information he was to receive tonight from Benjy Fenwick and Marlene McKinnon would bring him a step closer to stopping the evil that was closing in.

He found his way down the twisting path to Hogsmeade and stopped at the Three Broomsticks pub. He knocked three times in rhythm and the door was opened by a weary eyed Madame Rosmerta. She was wearing a long blue night dress with a grey woollen cardigan over the top and donned a night bonnet to match. She was holding a candle-lit lamp in her left hand, shining Dumbledore's way into the pub.

'They're upstairs for you.' she said, trying to hold back a yawn. It was very late.

'Thank you Madame Rosmerta.' Dumbledore said, bowing his head graciously at the pubs land lady, 'I am sorry for waking you.'

'Oh don't worry about it.' Rosmerta yawned, unable to keep it in this time, 'I know it's important. I just wish importance could have waited for a few more hours.'

'My usual room?' he asked her, ignoring her last comment. He didn't have time to be profusely sorry right now. This information could not have waited for a few more hours. Everything involving Voldemort and his latest plans was timesensitive. The sooner Dumbledore knew about it, the quicker he could begin finding a soloution to put a stop to it. After all, if he didn't, who would?

'Yes, yes.' Madam Rosmerta said, showing him the way up the rickety stair case to the third door along. She opened it revealing the lighted room and the two young people who were waiting in there.

The room they were in was bare. The two armchairs, a small round low table in the middle of them and a hat stand near the door were the only pieces of furniture in the room. About a year ago, Dumbledore had begun renting this room from Madame Rosmerta for urgent Order business. Of course, she didn't know exactly what it was for. But still she obliged Dumbledore on his requests to remove the beds, wardrobe and drawers that used to stand in this room and still continued to turn a blind eye to why Dumbledore wanted this room. She had a rough idea which was why she was so willing to get up at ridiculous times to accommodate him but she never confirmed it. She didn't want to. And that suited Dumbledore perfectly. It allowed him hold small meetings with various members of the Order without fearing that Rosmerta was going to barge in to fulfil her duties as a hostess, offering drinks around with reckless abandon and accidently stumbling across information she ought not to know.

'Thank you Rosmerta.' Dumbledore said, gliding past her and into the room. He turned to face her before she shut the door. 'Your assistance is greatly appreciated.' He turned his back to her again and only when he heard the door click shut did he gesture the two twenty something's to sit in the squishy armchairs by the roaring fireplace. They did so. He then walked over to the fireplace and stood near the mantle, turning to face Benjy and Marlene who were now settled into their armchairs.

'New information has come to light then I presume?' he said, directing the question to Marlene.

'Yeah.' she said with a bob of her head. She was a conventionally pretty twenty-two year old girl with some spunk. She had sleek chestnut hair which she tied back into a rough ponytail, some of it still hanging down at the front to frame her thin face. She had similarly coloured eyes, framed by long luscious eye-lashes, detailed with a beauty spot next to her right eye and hung under perfectly shaped thick eyebrows. She had slightly tanned skin and was painted with freckles over the bridge of her nose. Her lips were coloured in a mauve-purple which curved in a serious line as she continued. 'We heard a couple of death eaters talking about it at their last meeting. Dug a bit deeper. And think we've finally pieced it together. We wanted to make sure though before we came to you with it all and such.'

'Thought you'd appreciate that.' Benjy said, sending a wink over to Marlene who shook her head amusedly in reply. Benjy was the type of person to put in his two cents only after the information had been relayed already. However, if he found something particularly important, he liked to say it.

Benjy was twenty-four years old, almost twenty-five, and was a typical lay-about lad. He had shoulder length wavy hair which was a dirty blonde, matching the designer stubble he had been working on and the small square patch he had left unshaven under his bottom lip. He had a natural cheek to his curved smile, a straight arrow nose and seaweed green eyes which were set a little too far apart. He should have been wearing glasses but he never did, not liking the look they created when combined with his thick eyebrows.

Together, the two twenty-something's, were partners. Not romantic partners, but work partners. They had a good rhythm together and so, when assignments were dished out at Order meetings, they would confirm with each other before taking them. They both knew the seriousness of what they were doing and the risks they were taking. Many people in their situation would have been scared. They would have lost themselves to the fear of knowing they could die at any minute. But these two acted as if they were office workers and their volunteer jobs were nothing more than normal nine to five jobs at the ministry offices. They still lead normal lives, Benjy looking after his grandfather who was a permanent resident at St. Mungos and Marlene with her boyfriend who worked at Zonko's joke shop part-time. They laughed and joked and regularly met up with friends, their personality's able to break them free of the darkness they were involved in.

'What is this information you have collected?' Dumbledore asked Marlene, 'What is it in regards to.'

'Hang on a sec.' she said. She began to rifle through the pockets in her deep purple robes, the bottom riding up a bit to reveal black steel-toed boots with spider-webs on them, the drawn spiders moving around from painted string to painted string.

'Cool boots.' Benjy said with a grin.

'Thanks.' Marlene smiled cockily to Benjy before saying 'Aha!' and turning to Dumbledore. 'I wrote it down.' She leant over and tried to pass it to him but he stopped her by holding up his long slender hand.

'I'd prefer you to tell me.' Dumbledore said, 'I am afraid I have been reading all day and my eyes are a bit weary.'

'Oh. Sure.' Marlene shrugged. She unfolded the piece of parchment and squinted at it. 'Ok. So we managed to get to the boy who was under the imperius curse and read the file from the Minister of Magic's office, used that potion you gave us that would temporarily lift the memory wipe and then used the veritaserum and got him to tell us what was in that file. And as it was you-know-who who ordered the reading of it, we're pretty certain that you-know-who's new plan _will_ be to do with the muggle prime-minister.'

'Go figure.' Benjy interjected. 'For someone who hates muggles I mean.'

'I think that's the point.' Marlene replied. She continued on to Dumbledore who stood in thought and listened intently.

'Okay. So, apparently, muggles can vote for who they want as minister, (good idea), and they do this every four years so long as a majority can be reached.' Marlene started, trying to make sense of her notes. 'The one they've got at the minute, Callaghan I think, doesn't want the general election to take place and it looks like, at the minute, he's gonna get his way. He's told the muggles it's because after he received private polling data, and from that has decided that a parliamentary majority is unlikely. Whatever that is anyway.'

'Sounds like a dessert.' Benjy stated, clasping his hands together, 'Parliamentary majority.'

'Continue please.' Dumbledore said, obviously understanding what Marlene was reading to him despite the fact she wasn't too sure of it herself.

'Errr…' she said, scanning over her parchment for where she left off and shortly recapping it. 'Right. Here we go. So he thinks it's unlikely and doesn't want muggles to vote. He wants to stay as prime-minister, more importantly to us, the Minister of magic _needs _him to stay as muggle prime-minister because he's worried about the time it'll take to explain the wizarding world and the situation it's in to a _new_ prime-minister.'

'All this is what was reported in that file the kid in the Minister of Magic's office, who was under the imperius curse, read.' Benjy added, just repeating what was already known.

'So we must assume everything you are telling me, Voldemort already knows even if he does not.' Dumbledore murmured, ignoring the flinches the name he had uttered brought to the two in the room.

'Yes.' Marlene said, 'And if that is true, then you-know-who knows exactly what the Minister of Magic did to make sure the muggle prime-minister stayed where he was.'

'Which was?' Dumbledore asked.

'He used an unforgiveable curse.' Benjy stated.

Dumbledore looked mildly surprised and muttered to himself. 'I didn't think he'd have it in him.'

'He didn't.' Marlene said, hearing what Dumbledore had said even though she wasn't supposed to. She didn't think anything of it though. She just went back to her parchment and continued. 'So, he didn't actually cast any unforgiveable curses himself. He ordered the head of the auror department to do it for him. You see, according to this, during March earlier this year, the Minister of Magic was obviously getting worried about a change in the muggle government because at the time, after losing in a fake/mock election, the prime-minister faced something called a vote of no confidence. That basically means that, if it had taken place, Callaghan would have been fired because no-one had had confidence in him to keep doing the job he was doing. They'd have found a replacement for him.'

'Bit harsh.' Benjy said.

'Yeah.' Marlene agreed. 'So,' she went on, 'if a vote of no confidence was cast, the muggle world would have been in chaos. Two worlds in chaos is obviously gonna be very appealing to you-know-who. So, (I assume), to keep order in the muggle world so he could focus on the disaster in ours, the Minister of Magic ordered the Callaghan to make a pact with another candidate group lead by someone who had a shot at being the next muggle prime-minister: Steel his name is. The pact they made was to keep the _current _muggle prime-minister _as_ muggle prime-minister. They called it a…err…'Lib-Lab' pact.' she nodded her head after turning her notes over to find the rest of the information they had discovered. She carried on. 'Basically, Steel agreed to help keep Callaghan in power even though he could have taken the job himself. That make sense?'

'Totally.' Benjy said whilst Dumbledore just nodded solemnly and gestured her to continue.

'The bit that _we _think Voldemort is interested in, is this: the leader of the other candidate group, Steel, didn't agree to the pact willingly.'

'The Minister of Magic order the head of the auror department to put him under the imperius curse and forced him to agree to it.' Benjy finished up.

'We think you-know-who might use it as blackmail.' Marlene said, folding up her notes and throwing them on the low table in the middle of hers and Benjy's armchairs.

'Entirely possible.' Dumbledore said, he leant down and picked up the notes, unfolding and studying them.

The room was silent for a little bit. Benjy raised an eyebrow at Marlene and jerked his head to Dumbledore as if to ask what he was doing. Marlene shrugged.

'Are you aware of when this pact was to end?' Dumbledore asked.

'Err…' Marlene paused. She stood up and walked over to Dumbledore, peering over at the notes he now had in his hands. 'It ended in September.'

'So, I must be right in thinking that, despite the Minister of Magic's attempts to delay it, an election will be taking place in the muggle world rather soon.' he said.

'Next year I should think.' Benjy shrugged. He was still sat down, staring over at where Dumbledore and Marlene stood.

'So not only does this information provide Voldemort with black-mail material, it also informs him as to who is susceptible to the imperius curse.' Dumbledore summarised. He began to pace in front of the fire place. Marlene sat back down in her armchair to give him room to do so.

'This information tells him that if he can get close enough to Steel, he can place him under the imperius curse, push him to power and rule over the muggle world which, I am sure, is one of his ultimate goals. Voldemort wants to purify wizard kind and if he has a position of power in the muggle world, he can begin to rid himself of them without arousing suspicion.' Dumbledore deducted, 'We must not let this happen.'

'No sir.' Marlene and Benjy said in unison.

'We must have a permanent guard assembled for all muggles who are taking part in the election for the next muggle prime-minister, particularly the ones who wish to take the title.'

'Yes sir.' Marlene and Benjy repeated.

'But we mustn't naive.' Dumbledore stated. He stopped pacing and turned to face them. 'This will not be the only plan Voldemort has in the works. We cannot focus all our attentions on it. We must keep searching for another move.'

'Sir?' Marlene said, 'We have information about that as well.'

Dumbledore looked mildly surprised. 'And what would that be Miss McKinnon?'

'It's on my notes.' she said.

Dumbledore looked down at her handwriting. Scribbled in the corner was one word: Marsket.

'What is Marsket?' Dumbledore asked her.

'I think you mean who.' Benjy said, folding his arms over the back of his head. 'And let me tell you. It is the oddest little link I've ever heard of.'

* * *

The auror class was an hour and a half into that days training and James was exponentially bored. Williamson was stood at the front, droning on in phrases of three, about how it was illegal to charm muggle objects for the amusement of the wizard. James had actually read chapters on this in each of the seven books he purchased about petty crimes. He had spent the best part of six and a half hours reading and re-reading practically the same information in each of these books. Why he had had to buy seven of them he would never know. They were basically all the same. The only differences between them were the covers, the authors and the wording of the laws. In the time he had wasted reading the sentence 'it is frowned upon when a wizard commits a petty crime but is not punishable by a sentencing to Azkaban' in seven different ways, he could have gone for a ride around the Quidditch pitch. Five hundred times. He could have gone out with Remus, Sirius and Peter. He could have had lunch with his mum as she had wanted or he could have made a surprise visit to Lily as she seemed too busy at the minute to make any definite plans with him. But no. Instead, he had spread himself out on the kitchen table and had proceeded to waste half a day in his life reading dribble that he could have, in any reality, blagged his way through. And now, Williamson was reiterating it all again. It was like he was in hell.

He was tired too. It had been the first night of the full moon last night and he, Sirius and Peter had had a hard time of it. Partly because waiting for Peter to turn up had consumed most of the night anyway. Apparently his mother had become suspicious of his sneaking out, worried that he might be leaving to go and consume copious amounts of alcohol with the wages he was earning at the magical menagerie. So she had stayed up for three extra hours demanding that he tell her if he was planning on sneaking out and reprimanding him for thinking of doing such a thing. He had tried to persuade her otherwise but had eventually caved in and told her he was going to go stay at James' that night but that they weren't planning on going out anywhere. To placate her further, he had ended up giving her all the money he had saved from his job, all of it, before begging her to let him go just this once. And then, when she still wouldn't, he had ended up spiking her tea with sleeping draught and going anyway. When asked why this wasn't his first move, he was unable to answer and instead snapped at Sirius for asking him. He had lost his life savings that night and drugged his mother. He was in no mood for Sirius' remarks. However, his mood was lifted, thrown into the air with excitement in fact, when James suggested that, instead of having to go through that again, he should just come and live in the mansion with them. He didn't know it, but James had given Peter a much needed moment of happiness.

When they had finally found their way to the forest on the very edge of the Potter property, apparating within an hour's walking distance from it before transforming to avoid Moony catching a whiff of their human scent, they had a hard time finding him. All transformed, they ran through the forest, scouring every detail, every inch of it. Prongs was beside himself, knowing that even though the mansion was acres and acres away from the forest on the edge of the property, there was still a chance that Moony could have made it there and realised that there was a human in the house: Jane Potter. She would be sound asleep by now and, if Moony did somehow manage to make his way in, she wouldn't be able to defend herself and he would lose two people he loved in one night. The other thing that ran through his mind was the other animals on the Potter property: the sheep, the horses, the chickens. But they needn't have done for they actually found Moony a few minutes later, trapped underneath some overgrown roots of a conifer tree. They assumed he had been chasing a rabbit.

It took Wormy two hours to nibble through enough of the root that was trapping Moony until it was weak enough for Prongs to stamp it broken with his hoof. Once he was free, for some unknown reason, Moony pounced on Padfoot who was sat harmlessly right in front of him, anxiously awaiting his friends freedom. Prongs had had to use the full force of his antlers to shift Moony off of him but unfortunately, Padfoot's nose was still scratched and clawed in the process. After that, keeping an angry and hurt Moony, (for he was aching after being stuck under a tree root for so long), had kept them alert and in constant demand for a few more hours until the sun rose and a tender Moony was replaced by an exhausted Remus. Once he had seen what he had done to Padfoot's nose he was so apologetic but once transformed, Sirius told him to forget about it. It didn't stop Remus making an apology breakfast for his friends though. From there, it was rest for Remus, work for Peter, and the auror training programme for Sirius and James.

So Sirius, (with a gash on his nose that needed to be healed really as it hadn't really stopped bleeding), and James were now sat, absolutely bored out of their minds, in the conference room on the second floor of the Ministry of Magic. Sirius's eyes kept dropping closed and it was only by Alice Prewett's constant jabs in his ribs that he didn't just fall to sleep. James, who was sat next to Frank Longbottom was more successful in staying awake, but only just. And in his exhausted mind, he couldn't help but think that, maybe if he wasn't hearing the same information he had read seven times, he would be able to concentrate just a little bit harder. As it was, he couldn't but technically he didn't need too.

As soon as the subject had come up, James had withdrawn the notes he had on the subject from his bag and set them out on the table. He was doodling around the edges of them so it would seem to Williamson that he was taking notes on her lecture. His doodles ranged from snitches to plans on a way to turn his entire mansion into a giant bouncy castle made from jelly, from unrecognisable stags to the simple initials L.E. This was something which Frank didn't fail to notice.

'Lily Evans?' Frank asked in a whisper. He was unaccustomed to James' doodling and so, even though he was pretty sure L.E. meant Lily Evans, (a standard James doodle), he still asked.

James looked at him with a bit of a derisive look, not particularly in the mood to be questioned or spoken to or, anything really. 'No.' he said sarcastically, 'It stands for Law Enforcement. You see I'm just so damned pleased to be here and hear about things I've already read I just had to express my love for it all and-'

'Mr Potter!' Williamson called out, turning to James. Due to his tired state, his ability to whisper or, the need for it in that moment, had slipped his mind. She had heard him speaking to Frank. She continued. 'I do hope you've been listening. I do hope that you are not here just to waste my time and I do hope that your proclamation of love for law enforcement is genuine.' She raised one stern eyebrow testingly.

James exhaled a frustrated breath of air and looked around him. Everyone, (bar Sirius who seemed to have actually succeeded in falling asleep without another nudge from Alice), was looking at him, but not with the adoration or expectation that he had once received at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, he was getting all to use to that whilst he was in that room. The glares from the students who despised the fact that Williamson often stopped the lecture she was giving to call James out for yet another thing he was doing that _she_ viewed as disruptive. James was sure that, if she just let him get on with some of the things he did, like the odd harmless conversation, the rest of the students wouldn't be as annoyed with him. Of course, outside of the class, they were fine. They had been out to the Leakey Cauldron a few nights and he had had a laugh with them all but when they were in that seminar, they didn't see the fun and laughter they had with him elsewhere. That didn't mean, however, that he knuckled under and changed for them.

'Yeah of course it's genuine.' James snarked, 'Who here doesn't love sitting in this room week after week listening to a bunch of rules which we never _actually_ get to practice.'

'Mr Potter I thought you were aware that the first year of this course is theoretical. It is something that everyone was made aware of in their acceptance letters.' Williamson replied, ignoring his sarcasm and folding her arms at him.

James sighed and lent back boyishly in his chair. 'I know.' He was a little thrown off by the fact that, for once, she wasn't speaking in chorus' of threes.

She stared at him with narrowed eyes. She didn't believe he cared about the theory and, she was right. It was clear in his demeanour in class. He never sat to attention. He never took notes. He didn't even have the books. Little did she know though, that despite that he wasn't taking notes that say and that he wasn't sitting to attention, he had bought the books thanks to a small, somewhat forced, intervention from his girlfriend. And he knew his stuff.

'Mr Potter.' she said, placing her hands on her hips, 'Are you aware of what we have been talking about for the past hour and a half?'

James just raised his eyebrows at her and folded his arms. He really, _really_, wasn't in the mood for this today.

'Mr Potter.' she continued on, despite his lack of an answer. A smile played around her lips. It was the smile she used when she kicked him out the other day. She was ready to do that again. 'What punishment is given to a witch or wizard who has enchanted an every-day object in an attempt to bait muggles and who would deal with it?'

James blinked at her and the class rolled their eyes, almost in unison as they expected, once again, for James to be kicked out of the class. Last time it was because he hadn't bought the books. But he had now. And it was quite a different story.

James breathed out in slight exasperation at Williamsons glare as he leaned forwards onto his desk and clasped his hands together. He looked her straight in the eye and spoke with complete ease and confidence. 'Depending on the severity of the case it will be handled by either the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol or the auror department. The severity is determined by whether the muggle has been severely hurt or harmed and is in need off medical attention by either our healers or their doctors. If they _do_ need medical attention, the witch or wizard who has been doing the muggle-baiting will be requested to report to an inquiry hearing at which their punishment will be decided. As muggle-baiting is not an offence punishable by a one-way trip to Azkaban, the punishment is usually a fine of up to five hundred galleons and a mark on their criminal record. However, if it is just a juvenile prank and the muggle is nothing but confused about what has happened, the witch or wizard can get away with just a warning.'

When he had finished, practically reciting each of the seven books he had read this information continuously, he leant back in his chair again and folded his arms. He raised his eyebrows at Williamson, daring her to contest the answer he had given for he knew it was right. She may think he was lazy and a bit of a delinquent, a little bit thick, but James knew otherwise. He was incredibly smart even without reading and doing research. When he did do the work set however, it just tripled his intelligence output.

The room sat with open mouths. They had not expected, not in a million years, for all of that information to pour out of James Potter's mouth. A little bit of the summarised information he had given hadn't even been taught in the lecture yet. Some of the students, mainly the boys, were slyly trying to scribble down some of the facts that James had mentioned in an attempt to either fill their notes or give them a break a bit later when Williamson went on to fines, warnings and criminal records. A few of the thirteen or so girls in the class were doing the same. Another few were whispering between themselves, still shocked that James Potter had actually answered a question to the point of stumping Williamson with shock and the remaining through were looking at James with a new found level of attraction. Handsome, fun and now, smart to boot. A few of them wouldn't mind to have him on their arm. But James didn't particularly care, even though this attention was akin to what he had revelled in at Hogwarts. One, he was too tired and two, it made him think of Lily.

Lily who he hadn't seen since he went to see her at St. Mungo's the day he had been kicked out of the class he was in now. Lily who said she would write but had only written a grand total of two letters in the past week as she had had to study and go to dinner with her family and to her grandmother's grave and go to classes but not see him at all. Lily who he ached to see, touch, smell and hear with every fibre of his being but at the minute was restricted from doing so for reasons he couldn't quite fathom. He was _still _trying not to read too much into it but it had been going on for a while now, even before his surprise trip to St. Mungos, and he just felt that they had come too far for it all to come crashing down on them now thanks to a bit of distance. But, on the bright side, without that distance, without that push from her in St. Mungos to buy the books, the answer he had just given to Williamson would not have happened. It wasn't like he saw this as a shimmering silver lining to his distance with Lily but at least it was a positive. It was the only one he could think of.

'That is…' Williamson began, seemingly unable to settle on a word. Finally, after a few seconds, she found one. 'Correct.' she finished. It wasn't a huge compliment. It wasn't a compliment at all. Just a fact. And one she apparently wasn't willing to dwell on for, as soon as she had confirmed to the class that James had, indeed, answered her question correctly, she told them it was time for a break.

James let his head fall back over the back of his chair and took his glasses off. He rubbed his tired eyes and then moved his hand into his hair to mess it up just a bit more than it was, (just for good measure of course), and then put his glasses back on. He expected to just be able to sit there like that for the whole break but, thanks to his show of intelligence, a few people invited him to eat lunch with them. He had looked over to Sirius to see whether he wanted to go or not but, upon seeing that he was, as James suspected, asleep, he politely declined and said that he should probably try and boot some life back into Sirius. Everybody went down to lunch except the two boys, Alice and Frank.

'So,' Frank said, picking up James' doodled notes, 'Lily Evans?'

James sighed, hanging his head back over his chair and closing his eyes. 'Yep.' he answered in return to Frank.

'You do realise that stereotypically it's the girl who's meant to doodle their loves name right?' Frank laughed, trying to induce some humour into James. If he had known how exhausted he actually was and the reasons behind the tiredness, perhaps he would have left him alone and just gone down to lunch with Alice. But, as it was, he didn't know. All he knew was that Alice and Lily were best friends and, when they hung out and he was there, it was a bit uncomfortable for him sometimes as he knew nothing about what they were saying. It was like a foreign language. So if James came along, if he extended a hand of friendship to him, the boy who he had not particularly felt the need to become real friends with before, then maybe they could be uncomfortable together. Perhaps not though. James was known at Hogwarts for fitting into a situation easily and comfortably, as if he belonged there. It could be the same if he came with Lily when she saw Alice but, maybe not. For Frank, there was only one way to find out. But today, James wasn't interested. He was too tired.

'Yeah well…' James started, ruffling his hair again, 'What can I say? I'm a stereotypical girl trapped in a guy's body. Besides, this whole 'the girl does this and the boy does that' in a relationship is crap. Lily's the boss in our relationship.'

'Oh.' Frank stated, shifting uncomfortably, 'She gonna make you go to tea with Alice tomorrow then?'

James frowned and sat up. He clasped his hands together and sat, almost in the same position that he had when he had answered Williamson's question. He looked through squinted eyes at Frank. 'What?' he asked.

'Tea. Tomorrow?' he reiterated, seeing nothing wrong with his question. 'Alice wants me to come too cause I'm staying at hers and she doesn't want me to sit through an evening of twenty questions with her mum.' he laughed, 'And let me tell you-'

'They're having tea tomorrow?' James asked again. So Lily had time to write to Alice, to arrange tea with her but she seemingly had no time for him, not even an hour in the evening? It was really, _really _hard not to read anything into this now. Aside from his surprise visit to St Mungo's, it had been a month since he had seen her properly.

'Yeah.' Frank said cautiously, 'I mean…they haven't seen each other since summer, before we started this programme so I assume it's like some giant catch up.'

James lulled his head and pulled his hands down his cheeks in a tiny bit of frustration. He shouldn't think any more of this than it was. Obviously it was more pressing for Lily to spend a bit of time with Alice as they hadn't seen each other for far longer that he hadn't seen her. And that was probably due to him anyway. He knew that, the week before they had received their acceptance letters onto their perspective training programmes, Lily had had coffee with Alice, but not after that. He presumed that was because, at that time, he was taking up all the free time she had had when she wasn't absorbing the books she had bought for healer training. It was towards the end of summer that they had slept together and when he saw her after that, before programmes started, they had done it time after time. Every time. Perhaps the physical aspect of it all, and the need and desire for it they had started had overridden any urge she had to see her friends consequently causing a break between Alice and herself. It was only fair that Lily spent the free time she had tomorrow at tea with Alice. But that didn't mean it didn't force a twinge of jealousy through James.

'Yeah err…' James began, looking over, (a little enviously), at Alice, 'No I'm not going. Lily's said nothing to me so…'

'You should come.' Frank suggested, 'To be frank, it'll probably make things a bit more comfortable for me if you did. I don't understand half the things they say!' He laughed again.

James laughed with him but not at the same thing. No, what he had found extremely funny in his exhaustion was Frank's use of the phrase 'to be frank'. At the minute, that seemed hilarious to him because, in short, he _was _Frank and he obviously couldn't see the irony in it all. It made him chuckle.

'I can't go I'm afraid.' James stated after a good three minute laugh, something which, after about thirty seconds, Frank started to become a bit confused. James didn't reveal his source of humour though. Instead he continued with their conversation. 'I have stuff I have to do tomorrow evening and I can't bail. Permanent monthly engagement of sorts.' he said, referring to the full moon.

'Too bad.' Frank grimaced.

'Yeah.' James agreed before looking over to the still sleeping Sirius. 'Well,' he said, forcing himself to standing. 'Best wake this dingus up.'

Frank nodded and watched James walk over to Sirius and kick him in the shins to bolt him awake. At the same time as James walked away, Alice walked towards him.

'Lunch?' she asked.

'Yeah.' Frank said, nodding his head at her. They made their way out of the classroom. When they were out of earshot, Frank opened up a conversation.

'Hey, do you think Lily Evans and James Potter are still together?' he asked her curiously.

'Of course they are!' Alice exclaimed, wondering where on earth Frank had come up with the idea that they weren't. It was, to Alice, a bit of a ludicrous idea to think of a world where they _weren't _together. They were like each other's right hand. They couldn't be without each other. They were soul mates. They were together.

'Well are they having problems?' Frank continued to ask. He was someone who liked to know things. Not in a gossipy way but just in the need to know way. He liked knowing.

'Not that I know of.' Alice shrugged, 'Why?'

'Nothing really.' Franks said, 'It's just, he was doodling her initials and got a bit snappy when I asked about it is all. He's not coming to tea tomorrow either.'

'He was probably just annoyed at the lecture.' Alice suggested, 'He obviously knows it all already, I mean, you only have to look at the answer he gave to Williamson to know that. And he never comes with Lily when we hang out so…'

'Yeah but,' Frank sighed, 'I just think that something's wrong with him. I don't know him all that well but…he seems miffed.'

'With Lily?' Alice asked incredulously.

Frank nodded.

Alice looked at him in thought and saw that he was serious. Frank was the type of person to only point something like this out if he had genuine concern. What this concern was born out of, Alice didn't really know. But she couldn't stand the idea of something being wrong between her best friend and James. It was odd to think of really. So she made a resolve. 'I'll ask Lily tomorrow.' she said. And the topic was dropped until tea the next day.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Review if you want to! And look out for Excalibur!**

**Galindaba**


	12. Chapter 11

**Hey everyone!**

**I realised I didn't put an update date on my last update, (if that makes sense), so today I'm gonna give you two chapters and a cliffhanger :) Did I just write that? I mean two chapters with nothing at all else happening but fun and games :)**

**I hope you enjoyed my one-shot by the way if you read it :) if you haven't then HOW COULD YOU! I mean, that's fine. Cool bro. Up to you. (Please read it)**

**Just a quick thank you to Zulnahira Cullen who reviewed my last chapter. I sent you a reply to your question via FanFiction PM so I hope you got it!**

**On that note, if anyone does have any question or something or a scene they would like to see, then I am more than happy for you to PM me. It's summer now so for like, four months, I have nothing to do. Uni summers aren't like high school summers. No they don't mess around. They kick you out for as long as possible :( long story short I'm bored. Entertain me.**

**Anyway, here's Chapter Eleven! I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

Lily, Alice and Frank were sat in Rosa Lee Teabag tea shop in the late afternoon having the tea that they had planned. They sat around a small round table which had a blue flowered table cloth set neatly over it and a vanilla scented candle alight in the middle. Both Lily and Alice had ordered tea but Frank, who was there only to avoid time alone with Alice's mother, had ordered himself a pumpkin juice. He was almost finished.

The group was talking about the war between Voldemort and the rest of the Wizarding World, because, what else would three eighteen year old be speaking about? Nothing really. To them, even though they technically hadn't been affected by the war themselves yet, it was all too real. It was real for Alice and Frank because they were in the auror training programme and, although they were only learning theory and laws at the minute and it would that at least three years for them to complete the course, their eventual aim was to go out into the world and combat exactly what was going on at the minute: the tortures, the deaths, the disappearances and the prejudice. For Lily, it was all too real for the simple reason that she was a muggleborns witch. A mudblood to Voldemort and his death eaters. She was in danger of becoming a target just because of her heritage. The wizarding world was dangerous for her at the minute. What was even more dangerous, was that they seemed to be receiving less and less news about it all.

Many had though that Voldemort's radio silence, the fact that no reports had been given recently about his or his followers activities, was a good thing. That he was backing off and had become bored with the whole idea of an elitist society. People were under the impression that the resilience of the Minister of Magic and the wizarding community, the efforts of the aurors and the vigilantes they all knew were out there, had forced Voldemort off. Others weren't that optimistic. Other people believed the the Minister of Magic and the Daily Prophet were, either squashing whatever news they had to report or that, because Voldemort hadn't attacked in public, that he was doing something in secret. They wouldn't be wrong. At this was the exact impression that Lily, Frank and Alice were under too. And they weren't afraid to voice it in a café where they may or may not be overheard.

At first, they were talking about the disappearances of a couple healers a few months back on the fourth floor of St. Mungos. Lily had mentioned that Jane Potter had spoken to her about it briefly on the day of her induction into the healer training programme having brought it up only because healers were writing in sick, scared that they could be next to go missing. But Lily also said that, when she had looked it up later, as was a Lily thing to do, she couldn't find any articles about the disappearances anywhere. She had then gone on to subscribe to the Daily Prophet, to get a daily paper delivered to her via owl, just to see if it was brought up at any point. But it wasn't. And that wasn't the only thing she found odd. At first, when she had begun to subscribe, the paper had been decently full with news pertaining to the war. A good half of the newspaper was dedicated to it. But over a few weeks the news being reported had become less infrequent until there were barely any articles on Voldemorts movements. There was still the odd one but now, thanks to the stillness surrounding He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, there was nothing. The news in this area fluctuated so often though, Lily was sure more incidents would be reported soon. After all, even whilst they were at Hogwarts what the paper reported, how much was given out, was up and down. The Minister was always trying to keep the wizarding world in high spirits and bad reports just didn't do that. At some points, on some issues, the Daily Prophet had to comply with him. That was why the news world was always so topsy-turvy.

The other thing that Lily had been concerned about not being reported was, again, something she had seen at St Mungos. The day she had handed in her application form, the day she had finally met James' mother, there had been many patients in the waiting room with giant grey splodges staining their skin. Lily was convinced that this was something else which was, yet again, unreported, but Alice stopped her thinking there and quelled her worry with a story about what that actually was.

'No what that was, according to a girl in our auror class anyway, was just like, some random freak accident.' Alice started to explain, sipping a mouthful of her tea.

'Really?' Lily asked sceptically. She didn't particularly believe it but, if Alice said it was true and had witnesses to prove it then who was she to argue.

'Yeah.' Alice said. She put her tea down in front of her, the cup almost empty, and leaned forwards to tell Lily the whole story. 'You see, you know that beauty shop down the street, Madam Primpernelle's? The one that sells all the beauty potions? Well apparently, she mixed a really bad batch of some spot reducer balms or something cause she dropped a serum she'd been taking that reduced her moustache in to it. Anyone who used it came out in grey splodges where they'd rubbed it on themselves. Those patches are _completely_ bald. Gowanda showed everyone in auror class the one on her back. It's not grey anymore but there's no hair there. And no spots so I guess you could say that the stuff she sold did still work. Anyway, Madam Primpernelle's had to take it off of her shelves and Gowanda had to ask her and St. Mungos to write notes to excuse the lateness of her application form. She was so worried she wouldn't get in cause she handed it in a day late thanks to all that business.'

'Well that's unfortunate.' Lily said, a bit disheartened that the theory she'd conjured up in her head. 'I wonder why James didn't tell me…' she wondered out loud as a random thought. She had meant nothing by it. Frank however, had taken this as his cue to leave.

As soon as James' name was mentioned, he turned to Alice with a questioning look. He didn't really want to sit and listen to gory details of James and Lily's relationship when he could get a brief overview from Alice later as she would no doubt want to talk about it again anyway. Sitting through it twice would be dull. He liked to know things, not be bored to death with them. So he gave Alice a questioning look as if to say. 'should I go?'. She answered subtly by pushing her almost empty tea cup a bit towards him.

'Ok.' he said to her before addressing both Alice and Lily, 'Either of you want another?'

'Peppermint please.' Alice smiled at him.

'Just tea thanks.' Lily said.

Frank nodded his head as a register of their orders and left the table. When he was gone, Alice turned to Lily to start the conversation on a topic that Frank had been curious about the day before.

'So have you seen James recently?' she asked her, seemingly casual.

Lily frowned and thought about it for a second. Technically, in the last month, she had seen him once and that was only for a brief intermittent of ten to fifteen minutes. Plus she had spent the first five or so minutes a little but irritated that he had turned up at all. The last moments though, they had been unexplainable. She didn't know what the distance was nor the rush of affection from the simple action of taking his hand. She couldn't describe it. It was weird.

'I saw him for a bit about a week ago.' she shrugged as if it was no big deal, 'But not really since our induction days. Why?'

Alice shook her head a little as if it really shouldn't matter. But it did. 'He just seemed a bit down in auror training and I wondered if you knew what was wrong.' Alice made up.

'Is he not doing well in them?' Lily asked, concerned.

'No he's doing fine.' Alice said, waving away Lily's worry, 'In fact he stumped Williamson with this incredible answer to this question she asked. The look on her face was hilarious. She clearly thought she was gonna kick him out of the class again. But no, she didn't. I don't think he'd let that happen again.'

Lily smiled weakly and nodded her head. He wouldn't let that happen again because of what she had said to him when she saw him at St Mungos. It was nice to hear he had taken it to heart but, she couldn't say that she wasn't at least a little disappointed that it was Alice who got to see him show his intelligence and not her. James was very sexy when he used his smarts. It was something that she loved about him but she hadn't seen it in a while. Partly because, they had left Hogwarts, they had no classes together and no reason to show this side to each other anymore. They weren't at school. But another reason why she hadn't seen him do this was because she hadn't seen him.

'We're fine though.' Lily stated, assuring Alice and, in some way, trying to reassure herself. 'I mean, we haven't seen each other in a bit but…we write. I mean, I've had to do other things and he understands that. At least I think he does…'

'When did you last write to him?' Alice wondered.

'Before I came here.' Lily answered truthfully. She had written to him, just a brief note, before she had arrived at Rosa Lee Teabag to meet Alice and Frank. She would have written to him sooner but she had been busy. She had been in healer training all day yesterday and, after that had finished, she had gone to Florean Fortescue's with her new friend Thomas Ralston, (the one who James had nicked the ID badge off of the other week), to study some more. Today had been pretty much the same: healer training all day and then tea with Alice and Frank. The only difference was the ten minutes spare she had before her plans started.

'And before that?' Alice asked, referring to Lily's letters to James.

Lily shrugged. 'I dunno…a few days before.' She narrowed her eyes at Alice. 'Why are you so concerned all of a sudden?'

'I've always been concerned.' Alice stated, 'I just know that we haven't seen each other for ages and I wondered if the same went for you and James.'

Lily shifted, a little uncomfortable with the microscope that Alice seemed to be putting her relationship under. It reminded her of something that Hestia or, god forbid, Severus would have done; read into every detail despite its insignificance.

'I just know you gave up a lot to be with him and it'd be a shame if-'

'Me and James are fine Alice.' Lily cut her off. She began to draw circles on the table-clothed table. It was something Alice didn't fail to notice.

'I'm sorry.' she apologised, watching Lily's index finger go round and round until it stopped suddenly.

'It's fine.' Lily said, leaning forwards onto the table slightly, 'And anything I gave up…the thing with Severus and Hestia after that…you know they really didn't have anything to do with James. Not really.'

'What do you mean?' Alice asked curiously.

'Well with Severus he called me a you-know-what and, that was before I was even _friends _with James, yet alone dating him. That was strictly me realising I…I couldn't deal with that anymore, you know? It was just too much, too toxic. It had been coming for a long time remember?'

Alice nodded.

'And Hestia…' Lily's eyes widened as she replayed this event in her life which didn't seem to stop tormenting her, 'It may sound odd and like an excuse or whatever but, I didn't choose James over Hestia. Well I did but…I didn't.'

Lily stopped talking and began to draw circles on the table again. She looked over to Frank who stood waiting in the queue to be served. The place was packed tonight and so, he had only moved up a little bit in the line. He would be another five minutes yet before he even placed their order. After this cup of tea though, Lily believed she needed to go home. She had reading to be done before tomorrow.

Alice was looking at Lily a bit lost. Finally, she couldn't take the confusion anymore. 'I don't get what you mean.' she said, 'You chose him but you didn't? What does that mean?'

'Well…' Lily started. This was a dangerous topic to broach. She couldn't say exactly what the choice was, prejudice or decency towards Remus because that would reveal the fact that he was a werewolf and that was something she had promised not to tell. From there it was just a hop skip and a jump to the illegal actions James, Sirius and Peter had taken to help him. She had to be cautious. 'It was more of a moral decision really.' she began again, 'I chose the…option…that meant I wouldn't go against by belief that…everyone is equal. What Hestia stood for, I was against. It just so happened that James was…the one in the right. Get what I mean?'

Alice still looked befuddled. 'No.' she said.

Lily huffed a breath of frustrated air. 'Remember when I thought James had a secret he wasn't telling me? A big one? And you told me that maybe he needed his secrets and just to give him a bit of time to open up about it?'

'Yeah.' Alice nodded.

'Well it was about that.' Lily said, 'I accidentally told Hestia and…yeah it was bad. So I had to choose a moral stand point. Not a person.'

'Can I know what the secret was?' Alice asked, perhaps a little cheekily.

Lily just shook her head and stated. 'I promised him.'

'Ok.' Alice shrugged. She wasn't going to force her to break his trust. 'Can I just say though? That almost broke you apart, whatever it was, and you didn't speak to each other for about a week back then. I remember you being beside himself that he wouldn't talk to you. _He_ could be feeling that now. Only this time, it's you not talking to him and…well it's James Potter. One: he could do something stupid or ridiculous to get your attention. Two: he could find someone else. He has offers. And from when we last spoke you two weren't having sex so there's no physical relationship and-'

'We've had sex.' Lily said simply. She was right a couple of months ago. Once you had done it, it wasn't uncomfortable to speak about. At least, not for her.

After this statement, it was as if their mature conversation about Lily's relationship had been replaced by an excitable teenage one. After all, they were still teenagers. At least for a couple more years.

'Really?' Alice gasped, smiling happily for her best friend and leaning forwards in her seat slightly. 'How was it?'

'It was…' Lily grinned to herself, 'It was amazing.'

'Sooo...' Alice asked insinuatingly, 'Was it a _big deal?'_

Lily tried to bite back her smile but was unsuccessful. It showed on her face clear as day. She raised her eyebrows and nodded slightly. She gave a single breathless laugh before saying, 'It was quite sizable.'

'Wow.' Alice grinned back, 'Lucky you!'

'Hey!' Frank asked as he returned with the girls teas. 'What you talking about?'

Lily laughed and looked at him with a quick shake of her head. 'You don't want to know.' she said simply.

Franks looked to Alice for confirmation. She too shook her head. 'Okay then…' he said, sitting down next to her.

As he did so, Alice slightly leaned back in her chair, behind her boyfriend's peripheral vision and pointed her finger at him as she mouthed to Lily 'very sizable' in reference to Frank. They both descended into fresh peals of laughter for a good few minutes leaving Frank sat where he was at a complete loss as to what was going on.

* * *

James sat in the kitchen of the Potter mansion and Sirius sat opposite him. The table was covered with any possible books they might require for their auror training programme. He had now bought _all_ the books on the recommended reading list that was given to him in his welcome pack, not just the seven he had on petty crimes. And this time he had bought two copies of each book for he wasn't selfish enough to only take what Lily said unto himself. He was going to drag Sirius along for the knowledge gaining ride, if only to spare Remus from having to watch one of them throw away the opportunity he had so desperately wanted for himself.

What James didn't know was that Remus couldn't bear to see the situation either way. No matter what, he was constantly reminded that he had not won a place in the auror training programme despite his good grades and clear dedication. When James and Sirius were at auror training in the week, Remus had to distract himself from thinking about the fact that he was not there with them. When James and Sirius were at home, (now studying for the auror training programme), once again, Remus had to distract himself and stay away from them, fearing his interest in the topic and becoming too engrossed with it to remind himself it was not his place to be learning about such things. If he were completely honest, though these thoughts rarely left his mind, his only moments of peace were when James and Sirius were messing around or slacking off as they had been constantly before Lily had turned James' view of the situation around. And although Remus couldn't really complain that James was finally getting his act together, Sirius too, and seizing the opportunity he had been given, he couldn't help but sometimes wish that Lily hadn't forced him to buck up his ideas in the brief conversation James had had with her. It was selfish of him because he knew that the path James had been heading down would have only landed him a one-way ticket out of the class. But if that had happened, at least he wouldn't be the only one with an unfulfilled dream.

So Remus usually just avoided them when they were doing work and it had gotten to the point where James and Sirius just accepted it. This was why Remus only came into the kitchen very rarely and only to grab a drink or something to eat when he was hungry or when it was offered. Another subject would have to be raised to force him to stay.

'What's that law?' Sirius asked James as he frowned at a piece of parchment in front of him.

'What law?' James asked. He was sat with his feet up on the table, a look of concentration on his face as he read through one of the books he'd bought: _Magical Creatures: Law and Regulation. _He turned the page as he said 'There are loads of bloody laws.'

'Yeah I know.' Sirius replied, plonking his elbows on the table and resting his face in his palms. His voice became muffled. 'But what's that major one?'

James sighed. 'I don't know Padfoot. Perhaps it's in that huge arse book of major laws over there.' He gestured lazily to one of the bigger books to the side of the table.

'Gnnaaahhh!' Sirius sounded, the word unfamiliar and, truth be told, not a word. He collapsed on the table resting his face on the parchment he had just been writing on. The ink was still wet but he didn't care. He was completely frustrated. He knew he had to study for this course. He did, truly. He just didn't want to. What he wanted, what he thought he had gotten by joining the auror training programme, was a chance to kick some death eater arse. To actually pick up a wand and do something instead of reading.

He too secretly hated the fact that James had gone to Lily and she had talked him round into seeing Williamson's point of view. Sirius had thought he and James were standing on a solidarity front, both determined to hate her throughout the duration of their time with her as a mentor. Of course, he did see why James was more susceptible to Lily's view seeing who she was to him. It was all a bit annoying really. And to Sirius, besides the book covered table and the grouchy mood James was in as he studied, he couldn't see and rise in knowledge. That was probably down to the fact Sirius hadn't seen James show of intelligence a couple days before hand in class as he had been so tired from a full moon excursion he had fallen asleep. No difference was being made by this venture in Sirius' opinion and he was fast getting bored with the experiment James had begun. He could see that James, even though bizarrely annoyed, hadn't been spiteful enough to leave him behind to fail. He had bought him all the books and dragged him along for the journey. But Sirius still hated the fact that he had to actually do the work. All thanks to Lily.

He made a mental note to give her a hard time about it next time he saw her even though he didn't know when that would be. He actually couldn't recall the last time he had seen her which, now that he thought about it, was rather weird considering he used to see her every day at Hogwarts, even when they had hated each other or weren't getting along when she first started going out with James. It was odd. It was nearly Halloween, only a couple weeks away and he couldn't remember seeing her since the last few days of summer when the trees were green. And if it was odd for him how must James feel considering his level of infatuation with the girl. Thinking of this, Sirius considered that perhaps he was being a bit insensitive about it all. Maybe James wasn't only just studying because Lily had said it would help. Maybe it was a way to distract himself from thinking about her too much. And maybe, Sirius just needed to help him with it. So he picked himself up from the table, faint smudges of ink on his face and blinked at the parchment. Only two of the twenty questions already written on it had been answered. He could do this. For James. Maybe.

Maybe not. He shook his head at the parchment and stood up, walking over to the French doors which lead out onto the Potter grounds. Upon opening them, he stuck his head out and called 'Moony!'

No reply.

'MOONY?' he yelled again, only more loudly and uncertain.

'He's in the library I think.' James said through a sigh, his concentration still fixed on his book.

'Ah ok.' Sirius said, starting to make his way to the door on the other side of the room which would take him into the ballroom, only four doors and five rooms away from the library. He paused before he exited the room and turned to James. 'I'm gonna ask him if he wants some pie.' he said.

'Good for you.' James replied, paying no particular attention.

'Ok.' Sirius nodded and then left the room and left James on his own.

As soon as he was sure Sirius was out of the room, James exhaled deeply and put down the book he had been reading. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. They were aching from concentrating so hard. The language in the books he had to study for this course was confusing and repetitive. Especially as he had to read many of the sentences three, four times over just to make sense of them. Even then he didn't take it in. He couldn't stand it really. He knew why he was doing this, who it was for, his reasons behind it, all of that was clear to him. The eventual outcome however wasn't. What he was studying wouldn't be any use to him when facing a dark wizard. He had felt more prepared for the world, especially with the state it was in now, be_fore_ he had started the programme. What he was being taught, he felt, was just wasting valuable space in his brain that he could be using for other things. He was sure that if he ever had to face Voldemort and his followers, telling them that he could explain the difference between a petty misdemeanour and a serious crime which violated wizarding laws and had consequences of severe punishment wouldn't really help him. He doubted they would care. In fact, he knew they wouldn't care because, although things had seemed to have halted in the news on that front, he doubted that was truly the case.

The last major scandal that he could remember being reported by the Daily Prophet was the imperius curse being placed on the Minister's assistant. And that had actually happened whilst he was at Hogwarts. Nothing seemed to have been done about that though and so the majority of the wizarding world had come to the conclusion that Voldemort had just given up. But James had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn't think he'd give up like that. No. He was biding his time. He had put something big in the works, that was why he had needed whatever information he had forced that boy to read. What that was, James was sure no one would know until it was too late. And it wasn't as if anyone would listen to an eighteen year old lad with a theory. Especially as the war hadn't actually touched him yet. He was safe at the minute. So, even though he was sure none of it would help him, James tried to study and just hope that something may come in handy one day.

Of course, he wouldn't be able to study any of it if he kept being interrupted. If it wasn't Sirius moaning, Remus hiding, his mother quickly popping in and telling him she was working again, (even on her days off), it was Peter writing, asking if he could come over and sneakily move a bit more of his stuff in. His mother had had to go to France to organise a distant cousin's funeral, the last of her blood line, so it was the only time he had to do so without her breaking down and crying that he would die without her. Of course, she hadn't done any of that yet because Peter had failed to tell her that he was moving out so far. He was a bit scared to do so but, moving out was the only option for him. And James knew how stifled Peter had been in that house and from seeing the difference his mother not being there had on him and the genuine excitement he had about moving away and into the Potter mansion, he had offered the boy the chance of freedom. And he had even offered himself up to tell Peter's mother the news on his behalf. So that was another distraction from studying he _had_ to take part in: moving someone new into the mansion.

Really, the only distraction James would welcome at this point was an actual sighting of Lily. He hated not seeing her. Absolutely hated it. He could actually feel himself seething with anger at the fact he couldn't see her or hold her or anything. It frustrated him to no end and he knew it was rubbing off on those around him. But he knew when he had started to chase her, before they had even started dating, that she loved to learn. It was her first love and if he ever thought he could or would be a higher priority than that than he was seriously mistaken. Truth be told he was quite jealous of St Mungos and the students in the healer training programme for stealing all her time and layering her with research and tests and papers and studying and, basically, education. If he could kill education at this point in time he would. He would slay it, take Lily in his arms and run away with her, never to be disturbed again by anyone. He would just spend his time loving her. But he knew she would never be happy again. And so, as the saying goes, if you love someone, you should let them go. And if they come back to you then they are yours to keep. He had no doubt he would see Lily again. He just didn't know when. But hopefully it would be soon as he was going stir crazy without her.

'James.' Mrs Potter's voice rang through the mansion. She obviously couldn't find him and, instead of running through the house searching for him, had used the _sonorus_ charm to alert him to the fact she wanted him.

James sighed, _again. _He picked up his wand and pointed it at his throat, muttered _sonorus, _shouted that he was in the kitchen, then reversed the charm with the counter-spell _quietus. _Within two seconds, his mother apparated into the kitchen, losing her balance momentarily when she appeared and having to hold onto the kitchen table to steady herself. She was dressed in her healer uniform, healer pin attached on the left breast panel and bag over her shoulder.

'I've been called into work.' she stated simply to James who glanced at her briefly before picking up the book he had been reading and continuing on from where he had left off.

'I thought it was your day off.' James said. 'We were gonna visit Dad's grave this afternoon.' he continued, secretly thinking, _Great! Another distraction. _

'Please get your feet off the table James.' Jane Potter said, not replying to James' statement at first, having to take a moment to compose herself before saying, 'He's not going anywhere. We can go Sunday.' It didn't work. Her voice still broke.

James didn't notice. 'I guess not.' he answered, 'You gonna be home for tea?'

'Not today I'm afraid.' she said as she rooted around in her workbag for something. She found it, an envelope, and pulled it out. 'This is for you to sign.' she said, putting it on one of the books strewn haphazardly across the table amidst parchments and inks.

'Thanks.' James said, not looking up and not noticing what it was. 'See you later.'

'Bye sweetie.' Jane said, walking round to him and kissing him on the top of his head, as mothers do, telling him once more to take his feet off of the table which he ignored again, before apparating out of the mansion to St Mungo's.

If James had thought he could do some work now he was wrong. Simultaneously, Remus and Sirius entered the room in search for pie, and an owl, flew in through the French doors which Sirius had left open, landing in front of him with a letter attached to its foot. She stuck out its leg for him to untie it. He closed his book and threw it to the end of the table where his mother had been standing. It landed with a dull thud on books and parchment.

'You got a letter?' Sirius asked, opening one of the cupboards and taking out three plates.

'No I've got a broomstick.' James replied sarcastically. 'Course it's a bloody letter.'

'Geeze!' Sirius gaped, 'No need to bite my head off. You want pie?'

'Yeah.' James answered as he unrolled the letter he had just taken off of the owls leg and began to read. It was from Lily. He smiled, a genuine smile, something he hadn't done in the past few days, but it soon faded. 'Oh crap!' he practically yelled, banging the table with his fist. The books on the table jumped a little. 'DAMMIT!'

'What's up?' Remus asked, walking over to him as Sirius served out the pie he had retrieved from the cool cupboard.

'She's got a new boyfriend.' James said, the look of concentration on his face not disappearing as he continued to read the letter.

'What?' Remus said, looking over his shoulder at the letter. He skimmed the first few sentences and saw what James was working himself up about. 'Okay she says 'I have a new _friend_ called Thomas on the healer programme. The one you stole the badge from.' _Friend. _Not _Boy_friend.' he laughed. 'Your eyesight is getting worse.'

'It's not funny.' James said, running a frustrated hand through his hair.

'Just trying to lighten the mood.' Remus muttered.

'You stole a badge from someone?' Sirius said as he brought over three plates of pie to the table. He motioned to James to clear the table who did so with a wave of his wand. All the books and parchments collected themselves together into piles in the middle of the kitchen tables whilst the quills and inks gathered in a clump in front of them. Sirius set down a plate in front of James and Remus, who had taken a seat next to James, before jumping up onto the table and sitting crossed legged next to the pile of books.

'Yeah to get through the 'staff only' door.' James replied offhandedly.

'That's my boy!' Sirius exclaimed, ruffling James' hair as if he was his father, 'No regards for the rules. That's the Prongs we all know and love. This studying Prongs is a nightmare. Know how long he's gonna be around for?'

'I'd give it a month.' Remus wagered.

'Ten?' Sirius asked.

'You think I'm made of money?' Remus laughed, 'Five. As high as I'll go.'

'Yeah alright.' Sirius grinned, 'Five knuts on a month of studying.'

'How could she get a new boyfriend?' James muttered to himself, frowning as he continued to study Lily's letter.

'Maybe cause choo gettin' awl moody an' geeky layely.' Sirius sputtered as he shoved a huge mouthful of pie into his mouth.

'It says friend.' Remus said, digging into his slice of pie. It was rhubarb.

Sirius swallowed hard. 'Don't mean he's not moody or geeky though does it.'

Remus raised an eyebrow at him and shook his head slowly. He then turned to James. 'What makes you think she has a new boyfriend anyway?'

'Aside from the fact she says so right here-'

'It says friend.' Remus sighed in interruption.

'-they went to Florean Fortescue's for ice-cream and to study yesterday.' he exclaimed as if it was horrific news. 'Listen to this.' he went on, clearing his throat and reading a portion of Lily's letter aloud. ''_We went to Florean Fortescue's to study but ended up just talking instead. He's so interesting. He's from Norway originally and went to Durmstrang which I find so fascinating! Imagine the differences in subjects alone! They offer dragon rearing as part of their Care of Magical Creatures lessons. He took it. His hands are rough from scars of burns. It's so interesting. We should've been talking about helpful fungi to boost the immune system but I just could turn away from this topic. I know! Me not doing work. It takes something really special for that to happen! Ha-ha! We talked for hours and then he paid for our ice-creams and took me home. Sorry I didn't write sooner but I missed out on some valuable study time thanks to that and didn't remember till now.' _That's a date.' James said. 'He took her on a date.'

'It doesn't say that.' Remus said. James was reading far too much into this.

'Read between the lines!' James almost snapped, 'It says, '_He paid for our ice-creams and took me home', 'His hands are rough'. _They talked for hours, she forgot to write to me cause he made her stop studying which is something I've never been able to do!'

'Yes you have and that doesn't mean anything!' Remus claimed. 'It wasn't a date!'

'Now hold on a minute there Moony.' Sirius said, waving his fork in the air thoughtfully, 'Prongs might have a point here.'

'Don't add to this insanity.' Remus warned, 'He's reading too much into this.'

'Well all I can do is read cause I never bloody see her anymore!' James muttered under his breath, slouching down in his seat and moodily spooning his pie into his mouth.

'Exactly.' Sirius pointed out, 'She could have moved on. And you have to admit what she described was a date. Prongs might as well be Alice.'

'What?' Remus questioned, confused on all counts.

'He doesn't see her. She gets lonely. She finds someone else, maybe doesn't even realise it at first, and goes out with them. Has the time of her life and then sends an enthusiastic letter to her best friend about it all. In this case, that's Prongs.' Sirius deduced, feeling quite proud of himself.

'Great!' James said. 'I'm Alice.'

'No you're not!' Remus tried to convince him. 'He's not!' he said sternly to Sirius, his eyes warning him to stop messing with James' mind which was already playing tricks on him and reading too much into things. He was paranoid.

'Moony.' Sirius started in a calm fashion. He clasped his hands together, abandoning his pie on top of the stack of books for this moment of clarity. 'What do you call it when two people go out to a restaurant together, alone, talk about themselves and each other for the entire duration of the outing, find out what each other's _hands _feel like, one person pays for the other and then escorts them home?' He raised his eyebrows at Remus.

'Ok it wasn't a restaurant it was Florean Fortescue's.' Remus corrected him.

'Pfft!' Sirius said, returning to his pie, 'Same difference!'

Remus sighed in slight defeat. 'It's not the same difference!' he said. But he could see where they were coming from. What Sirius had said, in its own weird way had made sense. Kind of. James and Lily hadn't seen each other in a while and in James' paranoid mind he had jumped to the conclusion that Sirius had explained. But Remus knew in his heart of hearts Lily wouldn't move on from James like that, if at all. She was just as devoted to him as he was to her. Remus had seen it. They were mad for each other and it was only because they hadn't spent time together properly in a while that the madness was coming out in different ways. And there was only one way to handle something like this in Remus' mind. Only one thing would stop James' paranoia and clear up his worrisome doubts.

'Why don't you just go see her and ask her. Talk to her about this?' Remus suggested.

'I guess.' James shrugged, stabbing his pie with his fork.

Sirius seemed to pause in thought. He hummed. James looked up. 'Or…' he said.

* * *

**Thanks for Reading!**

**Galindaba**


	13. Chapter 12

**Hey Everyone! :)**

**Here's the second chapter for the day! I hope you enjoy it. Or get feels from it. Either :)**

**Here we go! Chapter Twelve!**

* * *

**Chapter Twelve**

'Are you sure about this?' James asked Sirius. On the Friday of that week, just two days after James had received Lily's letter and he and Sirius had constructed a somewhat ridiculously immature plan, they both sat in the conference room where their auror training took place staring at a small group of girls. It was during their lunch break. 'I mean, maybe Moony had a point?'

'Course I am!' Sirius exclaimed, acting as if he was hurt by James' doubt. 'And remember, you only have twenty minutes until Alice and Frank come back and if they find out what you're doing then the whole knock on effect will be ruined. Assuming you're right about what she'll do after she gets your letter that is.'

'You saying I don't know my own girlfriend?' James questioned, folding his arms as he leaned against one of the desks he and Sirius were stood next to.

'A couple days ago you were sure she'd moved on.' Sirius reminded him, 'You sure she's your girlfriend?'

James paused and looked at Sirius with raised eyebrows. 'I miss Remus.'

'If Remus were here you'd be writing a peaceful letter to Lily and it'd be you running to her to talk about your feelings and the situation.' Sirius stated, 'With my plan she'll be running to you _and _admitting everything is all her fault.'

'I don't know if there's any fault per say-'

'Prongs!' Sirius cut him off, 'Have I taught you nothing?'

'Practically.' James replied seriously before shrugging and carrying on. 'Ok. Which one?' he asked, motioning towards the group of girls.

'Twelve o'clock.' Sirius said with a smirk, looking the girl directly in front of them up and down. She was tall with wavy golden hair. She had on a pair of flared powder blue jeans, heeled white leather boots and a flowered orange top. Her parents were obviously muggles, her clothes hand-me-downs from the flower-power era in the 1960's.

'Who's she?' James asked, looking after the girl in question.

'Jasmine Franks.' Sirius stated.

'Jasmine Franks.' James repeated nodding his head. 'Flower name. Nice touch.'

Sirius looked confused. 'Thanks.' he said anyway. If he was being given credit for someone then he was damn sure gonna take it. 'Right. You know what you're gonna say?'

'All I'm gonna do is see if she wants to hang out tomorrow evening.' James shrugged.

'Dude!' Sirius exclaimed, 'This is only the second girl you've ever asked out. One, that's actually very depressing news. Two, it's sad. And three, the first girl you asked out took seven years to say yes. Now I don't wanna pressure you,' he put his hand on James' shoulder, 'but we really don't have that amount of time.'

James sneered at Sirius. 'I'll be fine.' he said before straightening his shoulders, rolling up the sleeves on his shirt, shoving his hands into his pockets and sauntering over to Jasmine.

Sirius made a big dramatic sniff. 'My boy's all grown up.' he said just loud enough for James to hear, 'Pulling his first scam on a girl. I'm so proud.'

James turned back momentarily and swore with a gesture to Sirius. He really didn't need his sarcasm. Truth be told, he was very nervous about asking someone out, whether it was fake and a scam or not. He had only asked Lily out before and she had rejected him time and time again until their seventh year at Hogwarts. He had gotten used to rejection and had tried to harden his heart against it but, each time, it hurt him. Now he was asking this girl Jasmine out to aid a paranoid scheme, all on the premise that she would say yes first time. But why would she? He had shown no interest in her before and, until the past week, he had been a nuisance to the class and had halted her learning. It wasn't as if there was a palpable sexual tension between them either. There was nothing for them in the way of a relationship, no hints or suggestions. And why would there be? James was quite happy with Lily and all of this was just a wild plan to see her. But again, it all hinged on his ability to persuade this girl to go out with him.

When he reached the group of girls, they started to leave, probably not knowing he was there. However, he stopped Jasmine in her tracks by tapping her shoulder.

'Hi, err, Jasmine.' he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. This was nerve-racking.

'Hey.' she smiled in return, flipping her hair back over her shoulders.

'I was wondering if you'd would, err, like to, err, go for a drink with me tonight?' he stumbled, 'At the Leakey Cauldron.'

'Yeah okay.' Jasmine answered straight away, beaming at him.

James frowned. Was asking someone out really that easy? Lily really had given him the run around when they were younger. Or, perhaps, it was easier to attempt to date someone when they didn't hate your guts. Easier to get a yes when you weren't inflating the head of their best friend to three times its usual size.

'Really?' James asked her, a bit surprised. He turned to look at Sirius who stuck his thumbs up in support. 'That was easy.' he said in confusion.

Jasmine giggled. 'What you thought it would be hard?'

'Well…yeah.' James replied. Still, he shrugged. He shouldn't revel in his ability to actually ask a girl out successfully first time. It was meaningless really. 'Okay, then. Well I'll see you tonight then.'. He turned to walk away but turned straight back. 'Time would be good.' he stated.

Jasmine nodded her head in amusement.

'Eight okay?' he asked. And when she nodded again he said, 'I'll see you then then.'. Everything was set.

* * *

Thursday afternoon, Lily hammered on the door. She was furious. Or paranoid. Or furious at her paranoia or paranoid over her fury. She really couldn't tell. And so, she needed some advice. Some help to read between the lines as it were. She had just received a letter from James and after reading it once, twice, a third time, had become so confused on whether its contents were plain or hidden, she now needed a second pair of eyes on it. She couldn't ask her mum or dad because their view of James could well be altered in a bad way. Besides, her dad already hated him. She couldn't ask her sister, obviously. The marauders would probably disregard it as James being James, it was innocent which, admittedly it could be, but she highly doubted their answer would be any different even if they knew it wasn't. Hestia and Severus were off her list and she definitely didn't want to go directly to James in case she came off as a paranoid crazy girlfriend. So she went to Alice. She knew James, knew his ways but was distant enough from him to provide an outsiders perspective. Plus she had warned her about James possibly doing something stupid to retaliate against the distance between them when they had gone for tea two days ago. And so, she hoped, she would shed some light on the situation.

She banged on the door again. Waited a couple of minutes then knocked again. This time, the door opened and she marched inside, straight into the living room which the door opened in to.

'Sorry for coming over like this but I didn't know what else to do and after what you said at tea the other day I thought you might have an idea and-oh.'

She finally turned to face Alice who stood next to a rather sheepish Frank. They were both in dressing gowns despite it being early evening.

'Did I interrupt?' Lily asked awkwardly. She had forgotten. As it was their only day off where Alice's mum wasn't home, Alice and Frank usually spent the evening alone on Thursdays. And Lily didn't expect them to just sit indoors and play chess when they had free reign to do whatever they wanted. Alice's mum wasn't home. It was something they clearly took good advantage of.

'It's ok.' Alice smiled, her curly blond hair, (now cut short), a little frizzy. 'We were done.'

'Are you sure?' Lily asked, blushing slightly and avoiding eye contact with Frank as he was with her too.

'Yes. What's up?' she wondered, walking over to the sofa and leaning on the back of it. She was now near where Lily was standing. Only Lily began to back towards the door.

'Really.' she said uncomfortably, 'I don't want to ruin your evening.'

'Lily!' Alice laughed. 'Just tell me what's up?'

Lily weighed up her options. On one hand, she didn't want to be an intrusive friend and insist Alice put her needs before her own needs or happiness. She had just totally forgotten the day. Otherwise, she wouldn't have barged in here like this. But Alice was reassuring her that it was ok and that she did have a bit of time to listen to her paranoid dribble. And Lily really did want to help in decoding the letter or confirming it. Whichever it was. After all, it was Alice who had warned her something like this might happen if she and James went without seeing each other for too long. He would end up doing something big and stupid to get her attention. And now it seemed like he was doing just that. She sighed and handed it over to her.

Alice looked a bit confused but took the letter and opened it. Frank walked over and joined her, leaning on the back of the sofa too and reading over her shoulder.

_Dear Lily,_

_Nice to hear from you. It's been a while. Haha. I would invite you to dinner tonight but I just assume you're off studying. Probably with George. No, wait, Thomas. Rough hands from dragon burns? Ouch._

_Anyway, even if you could do dinner tonight, I can't because I'm going out with a girl called Jasmine from my auror class tonight. We're meeting at the Leakey Cauldron at eight. It should be fun, just me and her._

_Bye. James_

_P.S. Her name is a flower just like yours. Maybe I should get her some. Haha._

Alice finished reading first and passed the letter to Frank as he wasn't quite finished yet. She raised her eyebrows at Lily and folded her arms. 'Well I did-'

'Is there any need for an 'I told you so'?' she interrupted.

'Yes.' Alice laughed, 'Because I did tell you so.'

Lily gave Alice a derisive look. She was right. She had told her so. But the need to point it out was a little bit juvenile. But juvenile, from the contents of James' letter, seemed to be a bit of a theme. And so she let it slide and just said in exasperation. 'Fine you were right. Now please can you help me on what to do?'

Alice laughed again. 'Of course.' she smiled graciously. She was about to just say to Lily, from reading the contents of the letter, to basically just go and see James tonight and get the whole thing straightened out. Really, it was the only logical solution to her. But Frank, being a guy, noticed something in the letter that perhaps both Alice and Lily had overlooked.

'Who's Thomas?' he asked Lily, standing up straight now as he continued to study the letter in his hands.

'Why?' Lily asked, confused as to what this had to do with James' date.

'Just, who is he?' Frank pressed, 'And what does James Potter know about him?'

Lily folded her arms and looked around the room. The wallpaper was printed blue which offset the moss-green couch. Looking at the couch, it had seen better days. 'He's someone from my healer class. James stole his access badge off of him when he came to see me at St. Mungos about last week.'

Alice and Frank looked at each other and back to the letter. Alice then turned to Lily and said, 'That the last time you said you saw him right?'

Lily folded her arms. 'Yes.' she said succinctly.

'Okay.' Frank nodded his head in understanding. Alice, of course, had told him this. But she had also said that there was nothing to worry about after Frank had shown concern about the state of Lily and James' relationship. Clearly she was wrong. 'What does James Potter know about Thomas-'

'Ralston.' Lily inputted.

Frank just nodded his head and told her to continue.

'Well not much.' she said, unsure of the relevance this had to the situation at hand. She sighed and put one hand on her hip, jutting it out to the side in a casual stance. 'I've only ever mentioned him once in a letter I sent to him a couple days ago. I told him that…we went to Florean Fortescue's to study. That he was interesting because he was from Norway and went to Durmstrang.' she explained, reeling off the facts as if they meant hardly anything to her. When she received incredulous looks of off both Frank and Alice she added, somewhat defensively, 'What? It _is_ interesting.'

'And what's this about dragon burns?' Frank wondered, pointing to James' words in the letter.

Lily shrugged. 'He took dragon rearing as part of his Care of Magical Creatures lessons. His hands are rough from scars of burns. Why does it matter?' Lily asked, speaking quickly to get to her question as she was confused as to why Frank was focusing on the wrong part of the letter, in her opinion anyway. Didn't he get the fact that James was trying to bait her. He was going to go out with someone else. A someone else who had a flower name 'just like her'. That was annoying to Lily. Especially as he had joked about getting this girl flowers which was just a totally un-James thing to do. He didn't buy into the flower concept and it was something Lily had also disregarded. So why he would joke about getting someone flowers without the express intention to piss her off she didn't know. It was clearly some stupid and petty scheme of his.

'Well,' Frank sighed, 'it's just…you've not spent a lot of time together recently. I know he misses you.'

'Well I miss him too.' Lily stated, a little bit miffed that that fact seemed to be a little overlooked. Yes she didn't express it to everyone and she had told Alice the day before yesterday that she and James were fine and not to worry, but that didn't mean she didn't miss him. She had just had a lot of things to do and, whilst she was doing other things, her mind was concentrating on something else. But in those rare and brief moments where she had a second to breathe, she did miss him.

'Yeah I get that.' Frank said, 'But you seem to handle distance a bit better than he does. I mean, he keeps doodling your name in auror training and when I asked him if he was coming to tea with you he was kind of pissed to hear you had plans. So, knowing that, I think that hearing that you went out for a random chit-chat-'

'We were meant to be studying really.'

'-with another guy, has made him second-guess it all and be a bit paranoid.' Frank said, explaining to Lily what he thought James must be feeling. And he thought he'd got it spot on really, for not knowing him all that well. But sometimes, an outsiders perspective is more accurate than someone whose view is marred by knowledge. 'Basically, I think he thought you went on a date with this Thomas guy and he's jealous that you spent your free time with him.'

Alice began to nod her head in agreement. 'That makes sense.' she said, nodding her head. 'I told you that he would one of two things. One: do something stupid or ridiculous to get your attention or two: find someone else.'

'Well there's nothing like killing two birds with one stone!' Lily muttered sarcastically, looking at the ground and shuffling her feet slightly. 'That insufferable, arrogant twat!' she suddenly burst out in a fit of frustrated anger.

'Wow.' Alice blinked, 'Fifth year flashback.'

'Just who is Jasmine anyway?' Lily continued on, ignoring Alice's little comment.

Alice folded her arms and shrugged half-heartedly. 'Just a girl in our auror class. Nothing special really.'

'Special enough for him to ask out.' Lily muttered again.

'Lily!' Alice laughed, 'You know he's not really asked her out. Come on.'

'Well what am I supposed to think Alice?' Lily wondered, 'Yeah he's doing something stupid to get my attention and yeah, it's working. But the way he's going about it, going out with someone else, that says something else to me.'

Frank and Alice exchanged a confused look. For some odd reason, the conversation, the tone of it, had shifted. This was no longer about Lily being angry at James for acting out, frustrated that he was pulling a childish stunt to grab her attention and force a meeting between them, it was about Lily's fears. Fears that James might actually pull away from her and find someone else as Alice had told her at tea that he could do for he had offers. He was a brilliant lad: handsome, charming, funny, smart, patient and sweet. And Lily was worried that, thanks to them not seeing each other as much recently, something that was mostly her fault as she had had other things to do, somebody else had seen all these wonderful things in him. Someone else had offered themselves to him and he, bored of waiting around for her, had taken the opportunity to indulge himself. Frank and Alice, as two of Lily's closest friends, knew it was their duty to quell her fears, give her the correct advice and help her fix whatever the problem was.

'You know it means nothing right?' Frank said gently, 'I really don't think he'd go with anyone else. Not when he's wanted you from the beginning.'

'Franks right.' Alice agreed. 'I really don't think you need to read into him asking someone out. It's just his way of getting you worked up. To sort it all out you're just gonna have to go and see him tonight.'

Lily shook her head and looked up to the ceiling of Alice's living room. This was pathetic really. A little bit of distance and their relationship turns into shambles, James has to resort to a petty prank. It irritated her to no end. But in her hearts of hearts, she knew Alice and Frank was right. It didn't mean she wasn't pissed off with James though. And it didn't mean she still didn't have doubts as to why he had chosen to ask someone else out.

'Are you sure that this only has something to do with option number one?' Lily asked, referring to Alice's choices of what she though James might do if he and Lily didn't see each other before long. 'Because, believe me, I don't think that option two is too farfetched. There's no saying he's not bored of waiting for me to say I have a free period to see him and that he's found someone who does have the time for him.'

Frank exhaled heavily through his nose. 'I don't think he's found someone new.' he said, 'But don't you think that, if you're getting paranoid over this, that he may have just been feeling the same way when you told him about Thomas?'

Lily looked solemnly at Frank. He was right. And that meant something else. James had done this to prove a point.

* * *

James sat in a booth with Jasmine, both of them laughing and drinking Butterbeer. They were nestled into an alcove at the back of the Leakey Cauldron, James on the end of the booths seating, both of them chatting away about anything and everything. He had his arm around the back of the seat where she was sat but, despite how it could be perceived from the outside, it was completely platonic.

James couldn't do it you see. He had, earlier that day, been completely on board with Sirius' plan, willing to upset this girl and upset Lily just to prove a point and, hopefully, rectify the distance his relationship seemed to have at the minute. But as soon as Jasmine had turned up, and he had realised that Lily was going to come soon too, he couldn't do it anymore. So he politely explained to Jasmine, whilst apologising profusely for leading her on, that he did in fact have a girlfriend who was going to show up at any moment to tell him off for being a moronic arsehole and creating such an unnecessary spectacle just to prove a point. He had expected her to be disgusted at him, shocked, hurt and humiliated at the situation, but instead, she just asked why he felt he had needed to go to such dramatic lengths. So he explained it to her.

Before he told her the tale behind the incredibly juvenile ruse he and Sirius had concocted, he told her this: he had loved Lily for a long time, though at the start she couldn't stand him, and was certain that she was the one for him - his true soul mate. She was fiery and smart and beautiful and good in all the best possible ways and whilst she was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, she was perfect for him. And that was all Jasmine needed to hear to be hooked on their story. Perhaps if James had started off by telling her that he had basically become a bit paranoid and jealous over a simple letter Lily had sent him then she wouldn't have agreed to stay and help him with his childish stunt. But as it was, James' natural way with words, his charm and ability to talk someone into anything with just a flash of his crooked smile and inviting hazel eyes, paved his was into convincing her.

So the two sat in a booth at the back of the Leakey Cauldron, both quite happy and both quite cosy. Jasmine sat in a sort of awe at James' handsomeness and personality, a little dismayed that this wasn't actually a date between them both and that he already had a girlfriend whom, by the sounds of things, he would marry one day. And James sat in a state of nervous excitement. He was a little bit worried about whether Lily would show up at all and what she would say to him when she got there. But he was also rather looking forwards to seeing her. Which emotion would win out if she arrived he didn't know until she stealthily appeared by their table.

'Okay.' Lily said, making her presence known to the pair who both looked up at her with wide eyes, a couple of deer caught in the headlights. 'I know what you're doing.' she continued, speaking only to James.

Excitement won out for James but he held in his smile at the fact that she had turned up at all and the fact that he was seeing her and simply said, 'Well good.' whilst taking a sip of his Butterbeer. 'I wasn't exactly being discreet.' he continued.

Lily folded her arms. She did not hold the joy that James had. The emotion that had won out for her, was her frustration at his need to do something so pathetically stupid to get her attention. She was rather pissed off with him if she was to be honest with herself. He was such a child sometimes. 'Can you stop then please?' she said to him, raising her eyebrows.

James smirked into his bottle. 'Stop what?' he asked.

'James!' Lily snapped, stamping her foot a little in annoyance. This was ridiculous. He dragged her all the way down her by way of a provocative letter just to prove a point and now he was playing games with her as if they were still in sixth year and hadn't admitted they liked each other. Typical James. And she really wasn't in the mood for typical James tonight. She had gone over it in her head and just wanted this mess to be sorted. No mess, no silliness. Just a mature adult conversation which she thought wouldn't be too difficult. If only James wasn't the other person in the situation.

'Lily!' James mimicked, just to annoy her further.

Lily took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down. Her arms were still folded and she looked down at the faint hairs on them which she could barely see in this lighting. 'Can we talk about this please?' she queried smoothly, keeping a level voice. She glanced at Jasmine who seemed to be watching their interaction with fascination. 'Alone?' she added.

'Lily don't be rude.' James said, acting aghast. He placed his Butterbeer down on the table and allowed his arm, which was still around the back of the seat Jasmine was sat on, to relax a little and fall onto her shoulder as he added, 'I am entertaining.'

Lily stomped her foot in frustration again. 'Ugh!' she said, throwing her hands into the air, 'Fine! I'll just go then shall I?' She began to walk away. This was ridiculous. Alice and Frank had almost convinced her that this was nothing more than a rouse concocted by James to get her attention. That he wasn't interested in anyone else. But if they were here and had seen James' hand drop onto the girls shoulder they may have thought differently.

'No!' James panicked, standing up and grabbing her wrist. 'Come on.' his hand slipped into hers, their fingers naturally intertwining and he looked her in the eyes. Her fury was met with his pleading her to stay. 'I'm sorry.' he apologised, staring at her regretfully for a couple of moments. He then tore his eyes away from her, sighing as he did so, and turned back to the girl still sat in the booth.

'Thanks for this evening Jasmine.' he said with a sad smile, 'And I'm sorry. Again.'

'Don't worry about it.' Jasmine said, waving away his apology with a flap of her hand. 'I'll see you in training.' she went on to James before adding, 'Nice to meet you Lily.'

'Mmmm.' Lily grimaced with a brief and unenthusiastic nod of her head before James led her out of the pub and into Diagon Alley which was now pretty much deserted. She didn't question why the girl seemed un-phased by her arrival and then James' departure. If she did though, perhaps her paranoia that James was doing this for other reasons may have waned.

'So what?' Lily said, pulling her hand away from James' as soon as they were outside. She glanced around her and saw no one. 'She your new girlfriend?' she enquired sarcastically, folding her arms again and beginning to walk down the cobbled path. James followed.

With the hand she had just released, James messed up the back of his hair, his deep red checked shirt that he had worn for the occasion riding up as he stretched his arm to reach the back of his head. 'Do you wanna go somewhere?' he asked Lily,

Lily rounded on him, stopping a little ways down the path outside of a closed Twilfitt and Tattings. 'No.' she stated surely, 'I want an answer. Is she your new girlfriend?'

James sighed, wishing he hadn't listened to Sirius. 'You know she's not.' he said, informing her of what she already knew. He shook his head a tiny bit, looking sadly and longingly at Lily. 'I told her everything when she got here. About you and me and…why I'd asked her out.'

'Why do this?' Lily asked, completely befuddled. 'Why? Was it really all just to make a point because if it was then that's just _lousy_ James. It's messed up. I'm sorry you thought I went on a date when I didn't but instead of pulling this sort of crap then you should have just _told_ me! You should have _come_ to me and _said_-'

'When?' James cut her off suddenly. He swallowed and puffed out a quick breath of air. He dropped his voice, even though he knew not many people were wandering the streets at this time when all the shops were shut. But he hated discussing things which he still considered private out in the open. Nevertheless, he continued, just quieter. 'When Lily?' he wondered, 'I never see you anymore!'

Lily couldn't answer. She tucked her loose wavy hair behind her ears and looked to the ground. She knew he had a point there. And as much as she thought that the fact they weren't spending a lot of time together didn't excuse James from pulling his stupid childish antics, she knew he sincerely believed that, for this situation, it was the only way to get her attention. It had been explained to her by Frank.

James shoved his hands in his pockets and looked to the sky. It was mid-October now so, even at half past eight, the sky was dark. It wasn't filled with stars as he was used to seeing it, from Hogwarts or the mansion in Wales. The smog of London covered most of them. 'Can't see the stars.' he said. He couldn't think of anything else to say.

Lily said nothing in reply. She looked up at them too though, but only briefly before returning her gaze to the ground. She folded her arms again. The silence between them swelled. If it had gone on any longer, Lily would have probably started rambling. Or ranting. One of the two. However, as it was, James spoke to break the silence first.

'I'm sorry.' he said. 'I know I shouldn't have…I get why you're mad.' He took a step towards her and was going to continue but thought better of it. He stopped where he was and continued to speak. 'I shouldn't have gone about things the way I did. I shouldn't have been willing to upset you and upset Jasmine just to prove a point and, believe me, I feel bad about it. You have no idea how much I regret doing this, listening to Sirius and-'

'This was Sirius' idea?' Lily interrupted, finally looking up at James. She noticed he'd taken a step closer. Suddenly the distance between them seemed unbearable to her. She wanted to run over to him and give him a hug. She had missed him but it was only when she came face to face with that she let the emotion take over. Sure, in private moments she had felt it. But not like this. It was as if a dormant flame had been relit.

'He did have some input but…it's not his fault.' James said, not willing to pass the blame for this onto someone else even though it would be the easier option. It would have been a golden opportunity: pass all the blame onto Sirius, make-up with Lily and then they would be back on track, only having to talk about when they would meet up and how often it would be. But he didn't do that. He couldn't do that to his friend. So he took it.

'It's my fault and I…Look can we please go somewhere or walk or something? This is driving me mad!' He finally marched up to Lily but he didn't touch her. Instead, he just spoke very quietly to her. 'I don't like talking about these sorts of things out in the open where anyone can hear and you know that. And it's not like it's busy enough that noise is gonna hide our conversation. Please. Let's just…walk?'

Lily closed her eyes and breathed in his beech wood smell. Her stomach flipped and her heart rate began to start up. Her anger faded until it was like it wasn't there in the first place. And she just felt so empty. It was odd. They were so close and yet there was still this distance between them. She couldn't explain it. And if she couldn't explain it, how the hell was she supposed to rectify it? What an earth would get them over this rough patch they seemed to have found themselves in?

She silently nodded her head and allowed herself to be led by the elbow, back through the Leakey Cauldron and into muggle London where, even witches and wizards had to admit, there were more places to roam about.

When they got into the main streets of London where people were still bustling around and traffic was still zooming past, they said nothing. There was plenty of noise to hide the conversation James didn't want to have in public so it made him feel a little bit better about discussing a personal issue out in the open. If he had his way though, they'd go somewhere private. But relationships are full of compromises. So after walking for a little bit in silence, James with both his hands in his pockets and Lily with her arms folded, one looking at the unseen stars and the other at the ground, James finally found a bit of courage to break the ice for a third time that evening.

'I didn't mean to make you mad you know?' he told her.

After a few seconds, Lily spoke quietly. 'Was it really all just to make a point? To make me feel the way you felt? Because I genuinely thought we'd gotten past you not admitting your jealous or just your feelings in general.' Lily queried, kicking an empty bottle that was lying near one of London's filled up bins. They wouldn't be emptied until the following morning. 'It's all last year stuff.' she tacked on the end.

'I've never hidden my feelings about you.' James stated surely. 'You know I love you. I'd do anything for you. That's never been hidden from anyone. It's been fairly obvious from day one to be perfectly honest and-'

'I wasn't talking about that.' Lily replied, her stomach still getting that indescribable feeling it always did when he expressed how strong his love for her actually was. It did always scare her a little, to have someone spend that much emotion on just one person. Especially when it was just her. She was nothing special. Still, she put this all to one side and continued. 'You're always so open about the good stuff. Things that make you happy or make others happy. Just good stuff. It's _other_ things you don't show. You run away. Or you pull some big spectacle together to make a point!'

'No I don't.' James rejected.

'Yes you do!' Lily countered with a disbelieving laugh before reeling off several situations where he had done one of the things she had said. 'In the year we've been together alone: I go on a fake date with Joshua Hunt and you sink the whole of one of the fifth floor corridors, all because you were jealous. Linda died, you were distraught, you wouldn't admit it, and you hid. You lost the final Quidditch game, couldn't deal with it, and you _hid._ Everything that went on when you told me about Remus, you stopped speaking to me for a week and it wasn't until a little bit of happiness came along that you decided you would tell me how on earth I could possibly fix things. I have to guess what you're feeling if you're not happy or I have to talk you into telling me and most the time that doesn't even work! You just shut me out! Now with this, I don't know what amount of reasons you had but I know you have them and I want you to tell me!'

'Fine!' James finally snapped back throwing his hands in the air. He stopped and turned to face her, looking her in the eye and saying, 'I missed you ok? It's not a crime! I missed you and I got a bit paranoid and I did something stupid all right?!' he stopped. He was breathing heavily as he looked into her eyes, drawn into them as if gravity itself forced him. His voice lowered subconsciously and he looked at her with open honesty. 'I…I just want to see you more Lils.'

Lily shook her head slightly. 'Do you think I don't miss you?' she wondered disbelievingly, 'I do.' She looked away from his intense gaze as she went on. 'I've just had no time recently and I-'

'We have to make time.' James stated. No gimmicks. Just a straight fact. They had to make time for each other otherwise they would never see each other and their relationship would crumble into non-existence. Lily knew this was true too.

She nodded slowly. 'Okay.' she said.

* * *

On Saturday morning in mid-October, Lily sat on the arm of the sofa in her living room with a small overnight bag at her feet. She was waiting for James to come pick her up. After seeing him last night, they had had a very in depth talk about their relationship. They had both agreed they had had some road blocks, mostly because they weren't seeing each other and the intimacy they had developed had begun to lapse. So, to rectify this, James had suggested that they meet up the next day and go to dinner. Lily had added an overnight stay with him, maybe staying for more than one, perhaps the whole weekend. As soon as he got here they would go drop her bag of at his and then head out. He was taking his time though.

'Where is he then?' her dad asked her. He was sat on the sofa watching BBC news eating a bowl of Weetabix covered in sugar.

'He'll be here.' Lily said, 'Don't worry.'

'Like I'd worry about him.' Richard Evans mumbled under his breath.

Lily gave him a look. He didn't see it but the sentiment behind it she was sure he could feel in the atmosphere.

He was being moody. For the past few weeks he had been happy. Lily's relationship with her dad had returned to a state where she and he had small inside jokes, especially where Petunias husband Vernon was concerned. It had been like that for a good few weeks. Lily and Richard had been getting along tremendously well and it was great. However, Lily hadn't particularly thought why her dad was being so cheery but, as soon as she got back the previous night, she found out.

She hadn't been mentioning James' name recently and her dad had thought their relationship had come to an end. When she told him she was going to spend a few days with him at his because they hadn't spent much time together recently, Richard immediately donned his 'I hate James' face and gruffly said that it would be fine. It then dawned on her that her and James' recent distance, whilst horrible for them, causing paranoia and unwarranted jealousy in them both, had only ignited Richards hope that James was finally out of his little girls life. Now he realised it wasn't true, he was in a childish mood.

Lily looked at her watch and sighed. James was over half an hour late. It wasn't like him to be late, especially when it came to picking her up or coming to see her. In fact, he was usually early.

'You sure he's coming?' Richard asked, taking his last mouthful of Weetabix.

'Yes I'm sure Dad.' Lily said.

'But he's late?' Richard questioned.

'Yes he's late.' Lily replied, becoming steadily frustrated.

Just then there was a knock on the door. Lily smiled and got up immediately. She grabbed her bag and then walked out of the living room, into the hall and towards the door.

Richard went with her, carrying his empty bowl on his way to the kitchen but briefly stopping with her in the hallway to say goodbye. 'He better have a good excuse for being late.' he said, looking towards the door as Lily opened it.

When she did, she found it was not James who was stood there but Sirius. He looked tired. He had red bleary eyes and his perfect hair was in a very James style mess, only, it didn't suit him as it wasn't purposefully done. His smile was missing. He wore a frown instead. Lily knew something was wrong.

'Sirius?' she said tentatively, suddenly very worried. A weight dropped itself into the pit of her stomach.

Sirius gulped and looked at her, beaten. 'James' mum is dead.'

'That's a good excuse.' Richard breathed.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Review if you'd like! (Please?)**

**The next update will be on the 9th of July because I'm mean and want to leave you despairing for a few extra days :)**

**Thanks again**

**Galindaba**


	14. Chapter 13

**Hey everyone!**

**Here's your update for the next few days but first, just a few thanks and stuff to the people who've reviewed! (I feel like I'm making an acceptance speech at some sort of awards ceremony :P )**

**Clozza: I'm so glad you want to keep reading! I want to keep writing so that's a good deal for us then :p And I'm sorry, (not sorry) about the cliff hanger and I'm also sorry (not sorry) that there may be more coming...**

**Hufflepuff-swagger: Thanks so much for your compliments! They made me smile ****:) and AWESOME username by the way! I'm a Hufflepuff so I love it!**

**gaigethemechro: Hi! I can't believe you read both in a week! I'm always so worried that they're far too long but all these scene keep coming into my head and I have to write them! So as long as that keeps happening, (and I assure you it will) then my fics will continue! Long fics for the win!**

**NN: Hi! Thank you so much for your review! I agree with the over-sweetness of some J/L fics and I was really hoping to find the right balance in this story so I'm ecstatically happy that you think its good! :) And you're from Poland! That's awesome! I love it when I find out people from different places are enjoying reading this story! Thanks again!**

**Anyway, here's Chapter Thirteen! I loved writing this by the way, I think it's been one of my favourite moments to get in to and see how James handles it all and how Lily copes with it and then them all together and what happens after I just, ahh, yeah! Just fangirling about my own story there. Sorry. Anyway, again, hope you enjoy how this plays out as much as I enjoyed writing it. There's an update today and then I'm gonna update again midweek cause I've just gotten so into it and it's almost finished :)**

** I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen**

Lily stood frozen at the door. She must have misheard him. Jane Potter was fine. Lily had seen her a couple of weeks ago and she seemed fine. She couldn't have died. But Sirius would never make anything as horrible as this up so it must be true. Worry crossed her face. How did they find out?

'Who-' she began to ask before Sirius cut her off with the answer.

'James did.' he said. He lifted his fist and tried to discreetly rub his eye. It didn't work. Anyone could see he was on the verge of tears.

'Is he ok?' she asked, a quiver in her voice.

'I dunno.' Sirius shrugged, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. 'He hasn't said much since he found her. We wouldn't have known, me and Remus, if I hadn't heard him drop the breakfast tray he was taking up to here. I went to see what had happened and…well…then I remembered you were gonna come and I thought I should probably tell you…'

Sirius trailed off and hung his head. He pushed his thumb and forefinger into his eyes to try and stop himself from crying in front of Lily and, who he could only assume was Lily's dad. But it was no use. Tears spilled out.

'Sirius?' Lily asked, trying to get a good look at his face. She looked back at her dad who was still stood rather awkwardly in the hallway.

'Do you want to come in?' he said to Sirius, gesturing him into the house and helping his daughter out as she was clearly at a bit of a loss at what the next step was. 'You can wait in the living room whilst Lily go and packs some more clothes.' He looked over to Lily who looked up at him with mild shock. 'You stay with him as long as he needs you.' he finished.

Lily gave a small smile to her dad for understanding before stepping back to let Sirius in the house.

He shook his head to rid himself of his tears, sniffed loudly and side shuffled into Lily's house, shoving his hands in his pockets as he went.

Lily rubbed his back and guided him into the living room. 'I'll be a few minutes.' she said, 'Are you gonna be ok?'

Sirius nodded his head and looked at her out of the corner of his eyes as she walked out of the living room. He heard her run up some stairs. She would be back in a few minutes after she had gathered some more clothes to take to James'. All he had to do was wait for her.

Richard Evans stood awkwardly in the doorway, quickly glancing ever so often at the boy whom he assumed was one of the friends Lily liked to speak about. Sirius. That was all he had gotten and that was all he really knew. Whenever Lily spoke about boys, whether they be her friends or her boyfriend, he generally blocked it out and let his wife Heather continue in conversation with her. Now he didn't have that luxury. Something terrible had happened and this boy, this friend of Lily and James', was in obvious distress over it. He just wasn't sure why.

'Did you, err, know her well?' he asked Sirius who was staring at the floor.

'She was like my mum too.' Sirius said, a break in his voice. 'And if I can't handle it…'

There was a tangible silence whilst Sirius tried to steady himself. His breathing had become a bit heavier and it was as if his throat was constricted, a giant tonne sat on his chest. He clenched his fists in his pocket but in the end, had to take them out to wipe his face. He blew a long breath out into the air.

'Will er…' Richard started again, actually showing some genuine concern about the boy he had basically bad-mouthed since he found out he was dating his daughter, 'Will he be ok?'

'James?' Sirius asked. When Richard nodded Sirius shrugged and went on. 'I dunno. It's not like he's had time to prepare for this. When his dad died a couple year ago, he knew he was dying. He hardened himself against it and just…let it happen. Didn't cry. But this…this is sudden and I…I-'

Sirius turned his head away from Lily's dad and brought a scrunched up fist to his face. He clenched his eyes shut, not wanting to cry in front of this man but also knowing that he had no choice. If tears were gonna come, they would come. And they came out in Sirius in body racking sobs.

Richard leant against the doorframe uncomfortably. He had only just met this boy, had no relation to him at all, and yet now he was sat in his living room in tears. He had no idea whether he was supposed to comfort him or leave him to it or just go and tell his daughter to hurry up. Richard was the kind of man who became gawkily awkward around people when they cried. He had been able to deal with his daughters and his wife over the years, growing accustomed to how they preferred to be treated when they were upset, knowing if it was a situation where they needed a hug, or whether they just wanted to be left alone because it was that time of the month. But anyone else, he wouldn't have a clue of what to do. Like now. He was at a loss and just thanked the lord when Lily came down with her overnight bag just a little bit fuller.

Lily took less than five minutes to gather up a few more clothes. She reasoned that she could come and collect some more if needed and if not, she could either wash the ones she had or buy some more. When she arrived back down in the living room, her bag on her shoulder, now stuffed to the brim, she gave a brief hug to her dad and silently thanked him before walking over to Sirius. She placed a hand on his shoulder and he looked down at her, his eyes redder than before, and nodded his head silently. They were going to go back to the mansion now and deal with James.

* * *

Remus stood in the kitchen leaning down on one of the chairs that sat around the oak table. His hands clenched the back of the chair as he watched with an odd contorted pain at what James was doing. Remus had endured the full moon transformations for as long as he could remember, the excruciating pain ripped through him once a month but he could safely say that this was far more painful than anything his lycanthropy could throw at him. He let out a heavy sigh. His forehead creased with worry. He wanted so much to try and talk his best friend round but he knew that nothing he could say in this situation would make James stop. He wasn't the right person to do that. Lily was. And hopefully, she would be here soon to end this torture.

As if his thoughts had summoned them, Sirius and Lily appeared with a crack in the kitchen having just safely apparated from Lily's living room. When they got there, Sirius gestured over to James, (though Lily was quite capable of seeing him herself), and then slouched off to stand next to Remus. He also knew that, despite James being like a brother to him, it was only Lily who would be able to get through to him.

Lily tentatively stepped forwards, scared as all hell. This was completely new territory for her and for her relationship with James. Yes she had been there for him when he had lost his dad way back in sixth year but not in this capacity. They were only friends then, just. He had prepared himself for that death and besides, when that happened he still had one parent left. This was different. They were together now and the sudden death of his mum meant that James had no other family alive. He was the last Potter standing.

She placed her bag on the table as she walked slowly towards him, one step at a time. 'James?' she said quietly.

'How do you make tea?' James replied, barely looking over his shoulder at her. He was bustling around the kitchen with his back to everyone. There was a kettle on the stove, whistling as it came to a boil and cups and saucers lain haphazardly on the counter. James was trying to fill one of them with milk but was shaking and so spilt it on the counter instead. It also splashed on his white t-shirt and red plaid pyjama bottoms. He hadn't changed yet.

'Why?' Lily asked. She sort of froze where she was. She had no idea how to get a handle on the situation. James seemed unresponsive.

'I don't know how to make it.' James replied, his voice unconsciously wavering. 'I should have learnt ages ago. Mum loves her tea and I spilt the last of the pumpkin juice when I went to give her her breakfast. I should replace it with tea. Mum loves tea. She wants tea.'

Lily frowned a little, confused. She looked over to Sirius and Remus. Sirius had tears streaming down his face and was now making no attempt to hold them in. Lily focused her attention however, on Remus. She looked at him questioningly and, knowing what she was asking, he replied. He grimaced and shook his head slowly. Jane Potter did not want tea. She had no use for it. Not now anyway.

Lily took in a shuddering breath and brought her hand up to her mouth. Her eyes filled with tears as she looked over to James. He may have found Jane Potter this morning but he was refusing to believe it. It was heart breaking to watch him fiddle around with such delicate china, spooning out tea leaves from a porcelain container. He was doing it with such determination and focus. He seemed transfixed on his task. One way or another, if he was left to it, tea would be made. But it would sit there turning cold and undrunk as he waited for his mum to bustle into the room and drink it down. It broke her heart to realise that she had to be the one to force him to confront this fact.

Steeling all her nerves, Lily walked up to James and placed a gentle hand on his wrist as he reached for the sugar. She stopped him in his tracks. 'James?' she said softly, looking into his face.

He avoided her gaze at all cost. He stared at the worktop and the milk he had spilt. 'I should clear this up.' he said, reaching for a cloth.

'I'll do that later.' she told him, stopping his had with the same gentle action as before. 'You need to stop.'

'I can't.' James whispered, clenching his eyes shut. He could feel the heavy weight on his chest beginning to ease.

'Why?' Lily queried in the same soft tone that James had reached. She was sure that Sirius and Remus behind them couldn't hear. She placed her hand on James' cheek and rubbed her thumb gently under his eye in an attempt to get him to open them and look at her.

'Because if I do…' he began, his voice cracking, 'If I do…then she'll….she'll really be…' He covered his already clenched eyes with his hand and tried to steady himself. But he couldn't. And for the first time in forever, he cried. He moved the hand which was covering his face and gripped for dear life onto the hand Lily had placed there. He leaned his cheek into their entwined grasp, not bothered for once in his life that he had an audience to his vulnerability, something he didn't like to let show too often. Instead, he opened himself up to it and clung to Lily.

* * *

'I see.' Voldemort said thoughtfully as he stroked his snake, Nagini. 'So…it would seem that our Minister of Magic has been rather naughty.'

'My Lord,' Lucius Malfoy started, 'I believe we can use this information to our advantage.' He went on. He was rather pleased with himself, giddily so, for he had finally retrieved the rest of the information that they had lost from the file the boy from the Minsters office read when his memory was wiped.

They now knew every detail from that file. They didn't understand half of it of course as it was all about muggle politics and the death eaters prided themselves on having no affiliation with any sort of muggle news. Nevertheless, it turned out they didn't need too. Lucius, after casting the imperius curse on the man who had removed that same curse from the boy who had originally peeked at the file in the Minister's office, had managed to get him to reverse the memory charm that was laid on the boy which forced him to forget the contents of the file. Then, after that, thanks to some rigorous torture given by himself and Rabastan Lestrange, the boy had revealed everything from the pacts the muggle prime-minister was making to the Minister of Magic's illegal involvement in the elections. They had then, of course, killed the lad who had given the information, but had sent the wizard who was under Lucius' imperius curse back into the ministry. He was a high up person in the auror department. He would be useful, as was this information.

'With this knowledge, we can prove that the Minister of Magic is ordering the use of illegal curses to get his way and is keeping things from the public.' Lucius said. He was referring to the fact that the Minister of magic, to ensure that chaos would not ensue in the muggle world thanks to the opportunity a general election would provide Voldemort with, had taken measures to ensure the current muggle Prime Minister stayed in power. He had ordered the imperius curse to be used on an opposing political party to force him to agree to a Lib-Lab pact that stated he was in favour of keeping the Prime Minister in power, preventing a general election from coming around too early.

'Well we know he's keeping things from the fucking public!' Lestrange Sr. swore. He hadn't been to many meetings but, when he did attend, any comments he made were more often than not accompanied by foul language. 'You only gotta look at that hit we gave out at St Mungos a couple months back. Not a bloody scrap of news was reported on that. Seven disgusting mudbloods put where they belong! They shouldn't be healers anyway! Who wants their infested hands touching ya? And all the rest of the bloody staff thought it was just two disappearances and the rest of them was just people going off ill! If that's not a fucking cover-up then my arse is blue!' he finished with a deep laugh.

Voldemort gave him a sparing glance and then turned back to Lucius. 'The Minister will regret his actions.' he said with the hint of a malicious evil smile playing around his thin, almost non-existent lips. 'And if he wants to be sure the public does not find out just how much he is hiding from them, if he wants to 'protect' them, he will soon begin to take orders rather than making them.'

A ripple of malevolent chuckles rang around the table and echoed in the room that was contained in a little hut on the edge of a forest.

'But that is my privilege.' Voldemort said, squashing the chuckle and making sure that all his followers knew that he, and only he, would be dealing with the Minister of Magic. He needed to make sure that they didn't think they were allowed or even capable of blackmailing the man who ran the wizarding world. Voldemort could because he was a leader. He had the ideal. He knew what he was doing. All the worms that followed him were simply there to serve.

There was a silence hovering in the air. They sat like that for two minutes, no more, no less, for that is when Severus Snape entered the room, trailed by Wilkes.

'My Lord.' he said respectively with a bow of his head in the direction of his master. Wilkes copied him and together, they went and sat down in two available seats in the centre of the table.

They settled themselves in and placed their wands on the table. Severus looked around. It was quite full today. The whole of the Lestrange family was here today, including their newest, Bellatrix. She had just married Rodolphus Lestrange out of a duty to keep her blood line pure. But anyone could see, from the way she slouched in her seat with her arms folded, next to her husband and opposite Severus, that she was sincerely unhappy about the match. Of course, everyone knew that she would have lept at the chance to serve Voldemort in the way she now had to serve her husband but it would never had happened. Bellatrix may have a sick obsessive love for Voldemort but it was better than what Voldemort could feel: nothing. And for the first time, Severus actually felt sorry Bellatrix.

He knew all too well what it was like to love someone wholeheartedly and them not return the affections. He had loved, did love, Lily in the exact same way Bellatrix loved Voldemort: willing to do absolutely anything for them. And he also was neglected by the one person who meant the most to him. However, his sympathies stopped there. He didn't much care for Bellatrix anyway and, aside from their similarities in unrequited love, they didn't have a lot in common. And besides, at least her love hadn't waltzed away into a happily ever after with her mortal enemy. Not like Severus' had.

He shook his head unnoticeably. He had forgotten. He couldn't think about this anymore. He couldn't. Especially not here. He had done well for weeks on end. Not one thought of Lily had entered his mind and he was proud of himself. A little ashamed at the same time but nonetheless proud. She would never know of the protection he was giving her by doing this and, perhaps, that was best. But for some reason, she had been on his mind today. Perhaps it had been because he had started his new job today. He had been unsuccessful at both position in the shops affiliated with the Dark Arts. One of those positions, the one in Moribund's, had actually gone to his school mate Avery who was sat at the far end of the table. He had had to resign to the only one offered to him: Potion maker at Mr Mulpeppers apothecary. Being surrounded by potion ingredients and cauldrons reminded him painfully of Lily. They were always potions partners.

'Severus.' Voldemort said, interrupting his thoughts and making him feel uneasy. 'What news do you bring us? What…information?'

'We found out who Marsket is.' Wilkes jumped in, 'Or rather, who they are.'

Severus turned his head slowly to Wilkes, sitting on his left and glared at him. He had been very specific before, during and after getting the information that Voldemort had desired about the mysterious name Marsket. It was one of the original pieces of information Lucius had found in the file the boy under the imperius curse had read. However, it was just a name. So more research needed to be done into who it was, why it was there and why exactly the Minister thought it could be so dangerous if Voldemort knew.

He turned his head back to Voldemort. 'Marsket is a wizarding family.' he said, cursing Wilkes in his head. 'It's an odd link but there is a link, to the muggle Prime Minister. I believe, if needed, this link can be used to blackmail both him, and an editor from the Daily Prophet.'

There was a murmur of piqued interest around the table, the death eaters all perking up a bit at the sound of the new information. Perhaps it would mean the extermination of unworthy blood.

'Enlighten us.' Voldemort spoke quietly. Still, everyone heard. Everyone always heard.

'They live in Chelsea-'

Severus kicked Wilkes under the table, discreetly, but hard enough to shut him up whilst Severus detailed what he had found.

'The Marsket Family is a wizarding family in Chelsea, a mother, a father and three children.' Severus began, enjoying the rapturous attention he was receiving from the room at large. 'Ava Marsket, the mother, has just given birth to the youngest child: Malakai Marsket. And the youngest girl is Katrianna Marsket. She starts at Hogwarts next year. The mother is a half-blood. The children are an abomination. The father, Leighton Marsket, a correspondent for the Daily Prophet, is a mudblood.'

'I don't see how this information is of any use to me.' Voldemort drawled.

'I beg your pardon my Lord.' Severus said in respectful reverence, bowing his head. 'I'll go quicker.'

'Then continue.' Voldemort said.

'The eldest child of the Marsket family, Dianna, is a filthy squib.' Severus went on to sneers from his fellow death eaters. 'The squib works for the daughter of the muggle prime minister. She looks after her children and, as it stands, she is also having an affair with the woman's husband. It is my understanding of the family unit that, if this pair, Dianna Marsket and her lover Peter Jay, are threatened, both the editor for the Daily Prophet and the muggle Prime Minister will bend to your will. They will be susceptible to black mail. Also, having this information, forcing the muggle Prime Minister to concede and step down should be easier.'

'Good work Severus.' Voldemort praised. He rose gracefully from his chair and began to circle the room. 'So.' he began, opening his arms to his followers, 'My friends. It would seem that muggles have more filthy habits than we know about. We must track the movements of this squib and her…lover. But we cannot just pounce. We must bide our time. If things go my way, the public, in both worlds, will not recognise that they are no longer in power until it is too late.'

* * *

Lily was exhausted. She had run around like a blue arsed fly that day trying to deal with the death of Jane Potter. She lived in the muggle world and in the muggle world, when someone dies, there was a very clear procedure. You called a funeral home and arranged for the body to be picked up. It would then be embalmed ready for the funeral, open casket or not, which would take place within the week. You then called a cemetery or a church and arranged for a minister or someone to oversee the ceremony. If the body was to be buried you had to secure a lot in the graveyard if your family didn't already have one. You didn't need to worry about a tombstone until a year afterwards when the grass had settled and the body had taken to the earth. Cremation was easier to deal with. You just had to make sure the body was booked into the crematorium and then pick up the ashes as soon as you could from the funeral home which, more often than not, would be kept for you until you were ready to scatter them somewhere. The wizarding world was a whole different board game.

Lily had no idea where to start. She supposed she should get the body out of the house first off. She wasn't sure how long after death the body began to smell and decompose but she was damned sure she didn't want to find out. However, she had no idea what to do. Wizards didn't exactly have phones or the yellow pages so how was she supposed to find out who she was supposed to contact. She couldn't exactly ask anyone in the mansion. None of them had dealt with something like this before and two of them were absolute wrecks. Remus was the only one who was able to help her really but even he wasn't much use. He was upset too. It wasn't really the best situation. So there were only a couple of options left really: Peter or Alice and Frank.

Lily wrote letters to both of them explaining the situation. An hour later, Peter appeared in the kitchen, ready to help. Lily had never been so grateful to see him before. She hugged him tightly when he arrived and thanked him for coming so quickly. Of course, he wanted to see his friends before anything so Lily, even though she did explain that they obviously weren't really in the entertaining mood, obliged him. She took him to Remus who was in the kitchen making a list of people he knew that Jane Potter knew, people who needed to be notified and people who would want to attend the funeral when the time came. She then took Peter to the Quidditch pitch where Sirius had been zooming round almost obsessively since they had all made sure James was ok. Then she took him to James.

She warned him that he _really_ wasn't in the mood to talk. He wasn't really in the mood to be _seen_. But Peter insisted and, since he was really the only help she had at the minute, she allowed him to visit him but only for a minute as she didn't want James to be overcome. When people apologise for the loss of a loved one, it stings. And for some unknown reason, the natural reaction to it is to burst into tears again even though it should be a comforting thing. And with James not liking to cry anyway, she knew he would hate it. But what else could she do?

She walked Peter over to James' father's old study, the only room that was in real use on the left side of the mansion. She paused outside the door and bit her lip, reconsidering it all, but was swayed by Peter when he said he just wanted to make sure James was ok. He was his best friend. So Lily tentatively knocked and opened the door.

'James?' she said quietly, 'Peter's here.'

James said nothing in reply. He just sat at his father's desk, leaning back in the tall backed leather chair that it sat behind. His hands were in his lap and his head was lulled to the side. At first glance, you might think he was sleeping. But he wasn't. His eyes were wide open and just staring without focus. He didn't acknowledge Lily or Peter.

Lily licked her lips nervously, she stepped a bit further into the dimly lit office. 'James.' she said a little bit more confidently but still to no avail. She looked down at Peter and shrugged apologetically.

Peter, who was wringing his hands, coughed a little bit. He had insisted on Lily bringing him in here, for once feeling important and as if he could make a difference. He had felt needed. But upon seeing his three friends, he saw that they all had their own mechanisms for dealing with this loss. His presence hadn't changed anything to them. Sirius was concentrating, as was Remus and James was just oblivious and unfocused. Two of the strongest people he knew were finding strength in themselves even in this situation, and the third was just blocking everything out. They didn't need him.

'James.' he said with a bit of a nervous stutter. 'I'm sorry about your mum.'

James didn't answer.

Peter looked down at his feet and shuffled nervously. He heard Lily whisper 'let's go' quietly into his ear and nodded in agreement. It was eerie standing in that room with James like that. James who was usually so full of life and always had something to say, seemed dead himself. He wasn't moving. He wasn't talking.

'He hasn't spoken since a little after I got here.' Lily told Peter as soon as they were out of earshot of the study. 'I don't know what I can do for him, I don't know what he needs.' she stressed, playing with the ends of her hair.

Peter looked at her and recognised her behaviour at once. It was something he saw in the mirror more often than not. It was the difference he always saw between himself and the other marauders. It was the helpless look which could only be fixed by help. And Peter was available to help. It was why he was here. He was needed. But only by Lily. Still, helping Lily helped James and Sirius, and Remus of course, so he would be helping them too by extension. He was ready to be the one to fix things now. He would prove that, James offering him a chance to move into the mansion wasn't a stupid idea. And when he finally finished getting his stuff together and out of his mother's house, they would all be pleased he was here.

'What needs doing?' he questioned, assured of his role.

'Everything.' Lily breathed. 'I don't know what to do or who to contact. I have Remus compiling a list of people who need to know. I've been writing letters to each of them and sending them off with Sox but after that I'm lost. I don't know what to do next.' she stopped.

She and Peter had made it to the entrance hall of the mansion, the giant Parisian inspired staircase that lead to the main bedrooms on the second floor was just behind them. She looked up and the one on the far corner and bit her lip. That was where Jane Potter still lay looking peaceful, as if she was still sleeping.

'I have to find out where the body needs to go.' she sighed. 'I need to contact people for funeral care. I need to know _who_ to contact about where the body needs to go and funeral care. The only people I can think of who might know is Dumbledore and McGonagall but it's halfway through the term and we don't go to Hogwarts anymore so I really don't think it's fair to ask them you know?'

'My mum knows.' Peter squeaked in input.

'Really?' Lily asked, hopeful for the first time that day. 'Do you think she could give us names and addresses and, you know, a list of what else we have to do?'

'Yeah…I think.' Peter said.

Peter's mum was a huge help. She didn't actually show up herself but she did send a list of instructions to Peter and Lily on how to handle everything. It turned out that there was a small department in the Ministry of Magic that dealt with the deaths of witches and wizards. It was The Department of the Control and Regulation of the Deceased, Ghosts and Undead. Lily was rather scared by the title of the department but she reasoned that it was only logical that the Ministry want to keep track of, not only who had died, but those who chose to stay behind as a spiritual footprint; like all the ghosts at Hogwarts. And she just assumed that the 'undead' was used for vampires and the like. She highly doubted that it was zombies as was the conclusion her muggle brain had jumped to to begin with. It just didn't seem logical. Then again, it was the wizarding world. She had learnt that pretty much anything was possible.

To give Remus a break, she set Peter about writing notification letters to St Mungos and the people who knew Jane Potter, informing them of her death. Whilst he was doing this, she took the floo network over to the Ministry and filled in a form that stated approximate time of death, final age, name and residency of the deceased. She handed it in and was given a time which the body could be collected at. Whilst she was there, she picked up a list of wizarding graveyards, not knowing if the Potter family had a plot at a cemetery already. She assumed they would but she reasoned that, just in case they didn't, it would be wise to have one. With the list of graveyards she picked up a sort of coffin catalogue and a list of qualified funeral officiators. She was sure she would definitely need them. Before she left, the woman behind the desk who had taken Jane Potters Order of Deceased form from her, informed her that it would be wise to stop off at the Law and Regulation offices to pick up Jane Potters current last will and testament. She gave her a slip of parchment that would help her claim it. The will would contain the deeds to the Potter estates and all earthly possessions which James would need to sign over to his name in order to keep them. Lily thanked her for her time and decided to do just that.

She took the floo network over to the Law and Regulation offices, as suggested, and asked the grouchy old man behind the desk there for Jane Potters will. She slipped him the piece of parchment the woman in the other department had given her and expected him to take it from her with no problem, retrieve the will and let her go on her way. But that's not what happened.

'S'not 'ere thisun.' he said gruffly in a thick accent.

'What do you mean?' Lily asked, 'It has to be. No one's been here to collect it yet.'

'It's still not 'ere!' he replied picking up a Daily Prophet newspaper and flapping it open, blocking Lily's face from his view.

'Well what does that mean?' she asked him earnestly.

He sighed and let his newspaper down a bit. He rolled his eyes at her questioning face and reached for a thickly bound book under the desk. He threw it on the counter at Lily. 'S'probably bin taken ou' by 'ooever's will it is.' he said, 'Check in 'ere.' He then brought the newspaper back up to his face and continued to read and ignore Lily for the remainder of her time in his office.

Lily exhaled frustratedly and opened the large book. The writing inside was tiny and she could only just make it out. She scoured the pages for the previous day. Then the day before that, the day before that, the day before that and the day before that before she found what she was looking for. Jane Potter had taken her will out to be revised a few days ago. By that logic, she would have taken it back to the mansion and filed it away safely until it was ready to be dealt with.

'Thank you.' Lily muttered under her breath to the man before stepping into the fire place and returning to the Potter mansion.

When she got there, she informed Peter and Remus, (who's break from writing condolence letters had resorted into proof reading Peter's attempts at them and, in many cases, rewriting them), that Ministry officials would be arriving at six o'clock that evening to take away Jane Potters body. She asked them to take care of it if she wasn't in the kitchen. When they asked her why that would be she simply said she didn't know how long it would take to talk James around into making the decisions he had to. Decisions only he could make. They understood.

Before she went over to the study, walking the little way it took to get to the other side of the Potter mansion. She busied herself about the kitchen and made James an assortment of sandwiches with whatever fillings there were in the cupboards. She also poured him a glass of water. She wasn't sure if he had drunk anything today and she was certain he hadn't eaten yet. Who knows, perhaps he didn't want too. After a personal loss sometimes people just don't feel hungry and consequently don't eat. But Lily thought James should try at least. She didn't want him to become ill.

She reached the door of the study with the plate of sandwiches and glass of water and cautiously opened the door.

'James.' she said, closing the door with her hip. 'Are you hungry? I brought you something to eat.'

James sat in the same position that she and Peter had found him in earlier: he was slouching back in the leather tall-back chair, his head lulled to the side and his eyes unfocused. The only thing that was different was the face that his hands were now clasped around a small glass tumbler resting on the desk. The glass was half full and Lily was half-way grateful. At least he was drinking something. Whether that something was wise to drink at a time like this though, she didn't know.

She placed the plate of sandwiches on the edge of the desk. 'Are you ok?' she asked him.

No answer.

'What're you drinking?' she said, looking at the amber liquid in the glass.

James sighed and brought the glass to his lips. 'Oak matured mead.' he answered, his voice a little croaky as his throat was dry. He hadn't spoken properly all day. He sipped his drink and then brought it back down to the table.

'Where'd you get it from?' Lily asked, thinking it was probably better not to state her opinion on the fact that she didn't think he should be drinking alcohol right now. Besides, oak matured mead didn't have a particularly high liquor content.

'My dad put in a drinks cabinet a few years ago.' he said, motioning to a hand polished cabinet across the room next to the door. 'He never used it but…I suppose the drink in there still as good as any.'

Lily paused, wondering whether she should ask or not. She walked around the side of the desk and leaned on it with one hand. She looked at James, who she was standing near to now, and then decided to just go for it. 'How many have you had?' she wondered, releasing the pressure on her hand and beginning to draw nervous circles on the wood with her fingers instead.

James watched her hand. It was her nervous habit. He didn't want to worry her any more than she already was. 'Don't worry.' he replied. 'This is my first glass.'

'First?'

James placed his hand onto hers, stopping her from drawing circles. He didn't look her square in the eyes but still, his words were heartfelt. 'Thank you for being here.' he said.

Lily took a deep breath. 'James?' she pondered gingerly, 'I need your help. Probably not today but…definitely tomorrow.'

'What with?' he asked.

Lily swallowed. 'Funeral arrangements.'

James closed his eyes and gripped Lily's hand a bit tighter for support. 'Yeah.' he whispered. 'Yeah.'

'And James?' Lily continued, thinking she might as well get it all over and done with now whilst he was talking. 'If you could think about any places your mothers will would be, that would be good. She took it out earlier this week and I don't know where she put it.'

James opened his eyes and stared and his hand holding tightly to Lily's. 'I'll find it.' he said.

'Thank you.' Lily smiled sadly.

'Lily?' he asked.

'Yeah?' she replied.

James loosened his grip on Lily's hand. 'Could you…leave me alone for a while please?'

Lily breathed deeply and nodded her head. She reached out and pushed his hair back a few times, the messy flop just sticking out in every which direction. She tilted his head up to make him look at her, if only for a second. There was a residual pain in his eyes. 'Sure.' she said, 'If you need anything…you know where I am.'

James nodded his head and watched her leave the room. He sighed to himself and reached under the desk where he had stowed the oak matured mead away. It was almost gone. He poured himself the last of it and downed the drink. It was his fifth.

* * *

**Next update will be on the 12th of July**

****Thanks for reading!****

**Galindaba**


	15. Chapter 14

**Hey everyone!**

**Here's your 12th of July update but I just wanna say thanks to some people who've reviewed!**

**Hufflepuff-swagger: Thanks for another review my Hufflepuff comerade! I feel so sorry for James too but like writing it! :p Not sure if that's mean or not though... This is one of the moments I've been really excited about writing so I hope I can deliver in these next chapters for you!**

**Guest: Hi! Aww I know it's depressing but I'm afraid it will be a bit like that for the next few chapters. Getting over his mum's death is something James isn't able to deal with well. He just can't handle it which is sad :( I just wanna hug him! However! This event and state of mind does leave way for more important things to come which you will see at the end of this chapter! :D Hope you'll enjoy that!**

**imagionista: Hi! I was just logging on to update when your review came through so never fear! I've got all these scenarios in my head so I won't abandon this! I'm so glad you like it! And thanks SO much for taking the time to read my stories, especially in two or three weeks! That's impressive :) And I know what you mean about the emotional connection and stuff but I thought it was just me cause they're so in my head! I'm so glad that someone else has found that connection so thank you! :D**

**Anyway, here's Chapter Fourteen! :)**

**I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen**

'Please James.' Lily begged, 'You have to choose one.'

'I don't want to choose one.' James replied monotonously, 'I don't want to look at that stupid book.'

It was the day after James had found his mother dead in her bed. He obviously still wasn't okay and nobody would expect him to be. But Lily did need his help and the previous evening, he had said he would make the awfully heart-breaking decisions he had to make as the only surviving relative to Jane Potter. However, he wasn't making it easy because, although he knew he had to make these choices or at least approve what the choices were, he still didn't want too. It was too painful.

He hadn't slept properly that night. He had been tossing and turning and stopping and starting. Every time he closed his eyes he saw his mother's lifeless face and nothing more. He went to bed when Lily dragged him there at two o'clock in the morning proclaiming that he really did need some sleep especially seeing as he hadn't eaten that day despite her attempts. He went with her to the bedroom they usually stayed in when she was there at the request of Sirius to sleep. For James, drifting off should have been a bit easier considering the copious amount of alcohol he had consumed throughout that day. But it wasn't.

Lily had dropped off like a log, absolutely exhausted from the day's events. James had tried to do the same but only slept for around an hour before being jolted awake by his subconscious. He had felt as if he was a small child again and just needed a hug from someone. But one look over at Lily's sleeping form and he didn't want to wake her. She had looked so peaceful and he thought that, if he had woken her, then he would have felt enormously guilty. And when he thought over it, he didn't want her to see him as weak. So instead, he had gotten out of bed, snuck out of the bedroom and headed back down to the study. He was going to have another drink. He found himself needing one. He would have gone straight there but he met Sirius sat halfway down on the Parisian inspired staircase. He had stopped next to him.

'Drink?' he had offered.

Sirius had looked up at him, his eyes bloodshot from tiredness and red from crying. He had nodded and, together, the boys had gone down to James' fathers study and had silent drink after silent drink, drowning there sorrows in their glasses. Sirius spoke occasionally. James did not. He drank more than Sirius and whilst Sirius went back upstairs at five o'clock, James hadn't returned to the bedroom, to Lily, until seven thirty in the morning. He managed to sleep for another hour and a half, then, when it reached nine, he woke up again and stared at the ceiling of the deep blue four-poster bed until ten past ten when Lily awoke. When she had asked him how he had slept, he lied. So now, as both of them sat on a chaise lounge in one of the unused rooms near the kitchen, pouring over the information Lily had brought back with her from the Department for the regulation of the Deceased, Ghosts and Undead in the Ministry, she had no idea that his mood wasn't all down to grief but to tiredness and drunkenness as well.

'James please.' Lily said, 'I know it's hard and I can't imagine what you're going through but, please, you need to pick one.'

James jutted his jaw out and pulled the catalogue of coffins towards him across the small low table that sat in front of them. The cover of it squeaked across the glass and thudded a small amount when he resignedly opened the book. 'That one.' he said, pointing to one of the coffins in the book.

'James that's the first one listed.' Lily spoke quietly.

'And?' James asked with a bit of an attitude.

Lily licked her lips and exhaled to calm herself. She was trying her best. She couldn't make all these decisions on her own. She needed to make sure James was happy with everything. It was more for him than his mother. She knew it was hard, she knew it was painful, but it had to be done. He had to pick a coffin, pick an officiator, tell her where the Potter burial plot was and in which graveyard, let her know if he knew where his mother may have put her will and when he wanted the funeral to take place. He needed to let her know but understandably he wasn't being very forthcoming. And she was trying to be patient but she had just spent ten minutes trying to persuade him to look at the blasted thing. Judging from that alone, trying to get him to do anything else was going to be harder than getting water from stone.

'You can't just pick the first one in the book.' she said evenly.

'Why not?' James said sharply.

Lily breathed. 'Because it's a child-size coffin and there are unicorns painted on it. Do you really want your mum to spend all eternity squashed into that.'

'Why not? My mum liked unicorns.' he muttered under his breath.

'James please.' she said for at least the fifth time that morning. 'I'm trying my hardest here. Please, I just…need your help on these things. I want you to be happy with the decisions.'

James looked her in the eye and considered things for a minute. He would never be happy with whatever was decided but he couldn't exactly say that. He knew she was doing her best, far more than what was expected of her. After all she didn't have to be here. She could go home. She didn't have to help organise a funeral or do it at all but she was out of the goodness of her heart. It wasn't fair for him to be so harsh towards her. It wasn't her fault his mum had died. And even though he knew he should lighten her load and make good on the promise he had given her to help, he still didn't want to. He couldn't was more to the point. And so he took advantage of her willingness to help him. He asked something of her which he shouldn't just because he knew she wouldn't say no. And he didn't need her answer to know that.

'Look,' he began, 'I don't want to deal with this. I can't deal with it. So…you choose whatever you think she'd like. The burial plot was full when my Dad died so he's buried at St. Martin's church near Conwy Valley. She can be buried next to him. I'll look for the will.' And with that he stood up and left Lily alone, his own words hitting him hard as he realise he was supposed to go with his mum to visit his Dads grave today. Now he wouldn't and anytime he visited his Dad now, his Mum would be there also. They were both gone. And he couldn't bare that thought. So he returned to the study and opened another bottle of alcohol. This time, it was swot malt whisky. He didn't bother to look for the will.

* * *

Peter was in the north of Wales visiting the church in which Mr Potter was buried. Lily had sent him there to enquire about what procedure they needed to go through to allow them to bury Mrs Potter next to her husband. He wondered around the graveyard for two hours now aimlessly. He had already walked into the church twice, once interrupting the beginning of a Sunday service and then interrupting the part in the service where bread and wine was given out. At this point he was starving. Unfortunately for him though he knew there was no way he could steal some of the bread they seemed to be serving so he could satisfy his hunger. So he just continued to wander the grounds some more until he came across a man who was busy weeding a flower bed.

Now Peter was sure that this man was merely the gardener, a muggle, and had no say whatsoever in who was buried in the grounds, but he thought perhaps he would know who would. So he walked over to him and coughed to make his presence known. The gardener turned his head. His rough and dirty look scared Peter. He had one misty eye, a broken looking nose and a balding grey scalp with sunspots on it. Peter didn't really like the look of him but, nevertheless, he persevered.

He asked the gardener first about the whereabouts of Mr Potters grave, (as he couldn't find it) and then if it was in his knowledge as to whether there was an empty plot available next to it. Rather rudely, he asked whether he could tell him who he needed speak to about it. The gardener, instead of answering him, simply beckoned Peter to follow him and led him to a small room at the back of the church where a leather bound book sat on a desk between two candles. The gardener opened the book to the back for Peter, unfolded a page, and gruffly asked him which plot it was he was after. Peter of course, had no idea what the appropriate answer was so he just gave in the Potter name and hoped it would help. Fortunately for him, it did.

Apparently, at the time of burying Mr Potter, Jane Potter had reserved the plot next to her husband to ensure that they would be able to spend eternity side by side. When Peter heard that news he found himself becoming a bit disgruntled that he had wasted a trip. But inspiration struck him at that moment and he stumbled upon a very important question in his mind.

'Who do we need to contact to have…to use that plot for Mrs. Potter?' he asked. 'She died this week.'

'Well us of course and the Department for the Regulation of the Deceased, Ghosts and Undead in the Ministry of Magic. You've gone to the Ministry already though I assume. People always go to them first.' the gardener grumbled whilst reaching under the table to open a drawer that hung there. He opened it.

'Wh-what do you mean?' Peter stuttered. His eyes darted around the room nervously. This man knew a lot about the wizarding world for a muggle. Perhaps it was just a scarily accurate joke though. Of course it wasn't.

'You're a wizard right?' he said. It wasn't a joke. This man knew what he was talking about. 'I assume wizard seeing as its Potter.'

Peter widened his eyes. He had genuinely assumed this man was a muggle who was oblivious to the secret wizarding world that operated around him on a daily basis.

'Wizard.' Peter whispered, a little bit anxious that perhaps he had just broken one of the biggest laws of the wizarding world. He was worrying far too much but, then again, he had never really had this much responsibility put upon him. It was a little daunting to him if he was being truly honest with himself.

The gardener nodded. This man was in actual fact a squib and knew about everything in the wizarding world but, as he couldn't enjoy it properly for himself and take up a wizarding job, he had taken one of the only jobs available to squibs that allowed them to be engrossed in both worlds. As a gardener of this church, he was fully integrated in muggle society whilst also being in a position to help the wizarding world bury their dead without suspicion. He'd had this job for forty-five long years and he knew not many wizards chose to be buried so close to muggles, namely the purists, but there were those few who didn't mind.

'I'm surprised a pure-blood family like the Potters wants to be buried here.' he grumbled, 'So close to muggles and arrangements being done by a squib and all.'

A high pitched noise escaped Peter's throat. 'You're a squib?' he asked, unintentionally rude.

The gardener turned his head to Peter roughly, fixing him a stare with his non-misty eye. 'Problem?' he snapped.

Peter shook his head quickly.

'Convincing.' the gardener muttered.

'Are they…are they…-'

'Spit it out boy!' the gardener snapped.

'Are they actually buried near muggles.' he asked, just curious, his words spilling out in a hurry.

The gardener shook his head in disappointment at Peter. 'No.' he said, 'They're buried a little ways from here. Muggles think it's a lost church, just some ancient remains someone found one day. Wizards know better. There's quite a few buried there. But I'm still surprised the Potter's want to be buried here. I'd've thought they'd have an ancestral plot somewhere else.'

Peter tried to avoid the gardener's misty eye. 'They do but its full.' he said. He was fast becoming uncomfortable with this line of conversation and now he just wanted to leave.

The gardener seemed to sense Peter's discomfort. He tutted at it but went forwards with what the boy had asked him about. 'There's a fee of two-hundred galleons to be buried here.' he said, 'We have an available funeral slot at three o'clock, Thursday afternoon. If you want that one then come back tomorrow with the money. Rest is up to you.'

Peter watched the gardener leave. He breathed a sigh of relief when he had left. If James had been here he'd have slapped him over the back of the head for being such a rude twat towards a squib. He'd have said that it wasn't their fault they were born without magic. And Peter knew James was right. Really he didn't have too much of a problem with squibs. He just felt a bit uncomfortable when they brought up magic because he didn't know how to word the conversation in such a way that it wouldn't come out as he thought he was better than them. It was hard. If they'd have stuck to small talk he could do it, but otherwise he just felt awkward in that situation. It was a problem for him.

* * *

Everything was set for Thursday, the day of Jane Potter's funeral. It would be five days before Halloween which the boys and Lily would not be celebrating. Unfortunately, unlike at Hogwarts, the holiday did not mean a day of celebration for the auror training programme or the healer training programme that James and Sirius and she was enrolled in respectively. There was no break for them in their courses and so, Lily had had to go in at the beginning of the week and explain to bother tutor and James and Sirius' that none of them would be attending classes that week. Her tutor was fine with it and told Lily just to come back when she was ready. Williamson was a little less compassionate and only gave James two weeks off and Sirius only one as he wasn't technically related to Jane Potter. They were allowed to miss this week in aid of preparation and the funeral itself but Sirius had to return the following Monday and James the Monday after that. Lily didn't know if this would be the case though. She thought it was highly unlikely that James would be attending any classes for a while.

He had continued to whole himself up in his father's old study, drinking and brooding. He had slowly drunk his way through the entirety of his late father's old drinks cabinet, through the alcohol that had to have been sitting there for over three years. He had thought he had been smart and had secretly sequestered Peter into going and buying him some more bottles but he wasn't that discreet. He had also thought that it was only Sirius, (and then Peter of course) that knew he was basically trying to drown himself in alcohol but he had failed to factor in the very distinct aroma that drinking brought with it. You could smell it in pubs and you could smell it on him.

Remus had said nothing. He couldn't exactly understand what James was going through, being the only part of his family left, but he did know how it felt to feel like you had no family. The two situations were comparatively miles apart but they were also close enough together to bring a bit of genuine empathy. Remus didn't expect James to be fine and act as normal but he hadn't quite expected him to act so out of character either. In truth he had expected him to do more than lock himself in the house, perhaps apparate out of the country, find his way to France or Holland. Just somewhere very far from here. After all, James didn't like to face things that gave him a reaction like this whilst in the presence of other people. He liked to run away and deal with things on his own without having to worry about anyone else or any other responsibilities he had regarding his work or his friends' problems. Why he had chosen to drink himself silly instead was beyond Remus. But he let him get on with it. After all, there was really little he could do to stop him.

Lily was a little less distant to the situation. She could smell alcohol on James whenever she was near him, when she brought him food, water or when they went to bed. It was on his breath, on his hands on his clothes. It was evident in his severely dilated eyes. She was very worried about him and so when she had caught Peter sneaking in six more bottles of Dragon Barrel Brandy she had panicked. He may have been trying to hide this from her, why she didn't know, but it had to stop. She couldn't sit back and watch him do this to himself. Plus she already had a lot to worry about with making sure Jane Potter's funeral went as planned and James grieving the loss of his mum. Add in James grieving the loss of his mum whilst turning into an alcoholic as a coping mechanism was threatening to push her over the edge. She knew what alcohol could do to people and whilst she wasn't friends with Severus any more, the stories he had told her had stayed with her. And she was scared. She knew that James wouldn't return to normal for a while and people grieved in their own ways but she was just afraid that this would make the process longer. She was scared that he wouldn't stop and he would become ill or something else. So when she had caught Peter trying to sneak the bottles of brandy into James, she had decided it was time to intervene.

'I assume these are yours.' she said, dumping the bagged-up bottles on the table with a clatter of glass.

James turned his head to look at her. He stared for a couple of seconds, caught out, before looking in the bag to make sure that was exactly what was happening. His mind wasn't particularly sharp at the minute. When he had confirmed to himself that it was the bottles of alcohol he had asked Peter to get him, he just returned to the floppy state he was in on the high-backed chair and drawled, 'Thanks.' to Lily.

'Don't thank me.' she said shaking her head.

'Fine.' James replied moodily. He put his feet up on the desk. There were holes in his socks as there were sometimes. He stared at one of them with fascination.

'James why did you ask Peter to get you these?' she questioned, just wondering if, maybe, he would tell her the truth. Of course, she knew he wouldn't but if he did then perhaps she would have come to understand as to why he was doing what he was doing a little bit quicker.

James blinked at her through bloodshot eyes. He breathed heavily. His vision, already a nightmare, was a little blurry even with his glasses on. He swallowed. 'Well,' he began, 'to drink them seems like such an obvious answer.'

Lily folded her arms and looked down slightly. She shook her head, a little disappointed.

'Well why else would I ask him to get me them?' James yelled at her, rooting in the bag and taking out a bottle of brandy. He started to undo the cap. He had stopped pouring it into a glass a couple of days ago so he didn't bother to get one out.

'Please don't drink that.' Lily begged of him in a soft whisper, completely the opposite to him.

James paused and tried to focus on her. 'Why. Not.' he said, the words coming out as if they were two separate sentences, a long pause in the middle of them. He shivered randomly.

'Because…' Lily paused. She exhaled quickly. 'I don't think this is healthy James. You're mum wouldn't want you to do this to yourself.'

'And how in Merlin's name would you know what my mum would want me to do?' he remarked snidely, continuing to undo the bottles cap. He was struggling a little bit though. He couldn't seem to keep his grip on it. 'It's not like you knew her properly.' he said.

Lily's mouth dropped open a little bit. Now, she knew damn well she didn't know Jane Potter as well as, say, Sirius did. But she had come into the picture rather late. James hadn't even told his mum about her until almost a year into their relationship. She would have loved to have known Mrs Potter better but that couldn't happen now. However, despite the fact that she had basically only known Mrs Potter for around four months, she thought that they had actually become rather close. They had been out to lunch on several occasions. It wasn't as if she met the woman the day before she died. But for James to point it out now, that she didn't know her, especially when she was the one to have organised her funeral, was a little out of order. Nevertheless, she didn't call him out on it, shout at him or anything. Because she knew it was just out of grief.

'Look.' she said after a while, speaking slowly and measuredly so that she knew he would understand her words. 'I know you're grieving. And I know that you don't want to be here right now, but turning to alcohol in this way, is not the solution. Addictions are hard to kick. Please don't let this turn into an addiction. I love you far too much to see you destroy yourself in this way. Alcohol can do bad things to a person. And I know I didn't know your mum very well. And I didn't have a lot of time to get to know her. But in the time that I did have, I know that she would not be…proud of you right now.' She hesitated on her last sentence. She had to be a bit harsh but she had to do it gently. It was an oxymoron.

James stared at her blankly through her little speech. He was breathing a bit heavily still and was using up all his energy to concentrate on her words. She had touched a nerve in him, that was for sure, but he didn't focus on that part. He focused on the first part.

'No I don't want to be here.' he said. 'You're forcing me to stay!' he accused her, his words slightly slurred. 'You are!'

Lily looked confused. Not once had she stopped James from leaving. Not once had she tried. It was surprising. Usually, because this was a situation which could be considered too 'real' for him, he would have run away. And realisation struck her. 'You want to run away.' she said breathlessly.

'I don't RUN AWAY!' James yelled. He threw the bottle of brandy against the bookcase on the wall. It smashed instantly, shards of glass dropping on the floor. The alcohol had gone in a myriad of different directions, pooling of a couple of the shelves, dripping onto the floor and soaking a couple of rare first edition books that had been in the Potter family for generations. The alcohol smelt. When it eventually dried, the room would stink of brandy.

Lily jumped backwards in shock. Her breathing became a little bit rapid and she stared at the place where the bottle had burst. She turned her head slowly to James and swallowed. She didn't think it would ever be possible. James, her James, the one who loved her so passionately, had taken a huge risk for one of his friends, who was funny, kind, smart, athletic and charmingly arrogant, had scared her. At this moment, she was scared of him. She looked at him with a new, wariness. Even when they didn't get along, when he was not so much charmingly arrogant as pig-headedly so, she had never been scared of him. She didn't like it and her eyes teared up. But she blinked back the tears because the last thing she wanted right at this moment was for him to see her cry.

'I _don't!'_ he insisted, using his hands to push himself up roughly from the chair he was sat in. Surprisingly it only took him one go. He had found some sort of defiance in himself that was countering, or at least, levelling his state of inebriation. 'I _don't_ run away.'

'O-okay.' Lily stuttered, trying to not let it show that all she wanted right now was to run out of the room, find a corner to curl up in it and cry because she had tried her hardest to help him through and it still wasn't enough. She felt as if she had failed. So she didn't want him to see that either. And even though, at the minute, she was rather terrified of what he might do or what he might say, she was able to find her bravery and stand her ground. She nodded her head to try and make it seem like she had agreed with him.

'I don't.' he said a bit quieter, 'I don't run away. You just don't- just- you don't understand.' He shook his head and lowered himself back down into his seat. He put his head into his hands and pulled at his forehead. His glasses were being pushed into his eyes but he didn't care. It didn't hurt. Or at least, if it did, he couldn't feel it.

Lily looked down at the top of his messy head. Her breathing was beginning to slow and the temporary moment of fear she had felt towards him began to disperse. She bit her top lip and thought for a moment. She didn't want to bring him back to a place where he would throw bottles again but she also didn't want to leave without understanding whatever it was he actually meant in blaming her for forcing him to stay. She weighed up the options and just decided to go for it. If he flew into a temper, she would just leave the room, lock him in and let him get on with it. Then she would send Remus to sort him out. He was stronger than her.

'Why…' she began a little nervously, 'How am I forcing you to stay?'

James lifted his head, his glasses now a little skewed on his face. He ran his hands agitatedly through his hair as he spoke to her. 'You're forcing me to stay here.' he repeated, his hands dropping to the desk heavily. 'But I don't run away.' '

Lily nodded her head slowly. 'Then…what do…why do you…disappear when things get...real?'

'Why?' he said. 'WHY?' he shouted. He stood up from the desk and leant on it to keep himself steady. 'WHY?' he yelled again.

Her eyes widened but still, Lily stood her ground. They weren't exactly a couple who shouted at each other. Sure they had argued and raised their voices at each other before but the aggressiveness that she was hearing in his voice now had never been there previously. She wanted to move the bottles off of the desk just in case but believed that would actually be more of a bad move than a good one. She didn't trust herself to speak, worrying her voice would betray the slight tingle of fear that had returned to her. So instead, she just nodded her head.

'Why would I want to stay?' James yelled again, 'Why would I want to stay? You lot are here. I don't like people seeing me like this! I don't like people to see me upset or angry or hurt! IT'S NOT NICE!' He pointed at her. 'But you…In London last week. You said no. So you're forcing me to stay. I'M STAYING FOR YOU!'

Lily looked down.

'Yeah.' James nodded, walking around the desk and walking right up to her so that they were almost touching. He spoke quietly to her. 'I could have been fine by now Lily. I disappear because I deal with things better when I'm not scared someone will walk through that door and want to talk to me. It's easier to get over things when you're comfortable. And I am not comfortable with other people seeing me when I am weak.'

Lily forced herself to defiantly look up into his eyes. He reeked of alcohol but she stood her ground. 'Grieving, being upset, crying or being angry does _not_ make you weak.' she said levelly. 'It makes you human.'

James blinked at her before scoffing and turning his head to where he had smashed the bottle of brandy.

Lily swallowed. 'Drinking your problems away instead of facing them…' she said, staring at him plainly, '_That _makes you weak.'

James looked back at her but he couldn't keep up with any eye contact. Even through drunkenly bleared vision with his glasses skewwhiff, her eyes were still a breaking point for him. They were captivating and he couldn't stand to look into them and see the disappointment she had for him right now. The shame. He looked at the patch of alcohol on the floor instead and stayed silent.

Lily tried to pace her breathing, taking slow breaths to regulate herself. She too looked at the patch of alcohol in the silence. 'I'll go get a cloth.' she said eventually before she turned around and exited the room.

James watched her leave and turned around. He ran his hands through his hair and gripped the back tightly as if he was trying to pull it out. He was looking down, almost doubling over. The room was spinning. He felt sick: physically, emotionally, mentally. He was sick and ashamed and he shouldn't have yelled at Lily. He knew it. She had done nothing but try to support him and care for him and she had arranged the funeral, something James was too terrified to face. And he had been ungrateful and thrown it all back in her face, taking his anger, his grief, out on her.

He let out a frustrated yell and released the grip he had in his hair. He wobbled as he stood up straight. He was breathing deeply and looking around the room with a frown when something caught his attention. The bottles of brandy were still on the table in a bag. He eyed them for a couple of second, bobbing on his heals as the need to drink them rose in him. He scrunched his eyes closed, trying to fight the feeling but it kept coming back like acid reflux. In the end, he grabbed the bag, the bottles clanking against each other, and opened the door of the office to put them outside. The sudden light transition hurt his eyes so he couldn't exactly see what he was doing but he knew that he had removed the temptation from himself and put it outside of the room.

When Lily returned with a cloth, a bag and her wand to soak up the wet patches on the floor of the office and pick up the broken glass, James was back in the high-backed chair behind the desk. He had turned it around though so he couldn't see her. She said nothing when she entered the room but James knew it was her anyhow. He knew her: the rhythm of her step, the lightness of her breath and the smell of freshness that she brought with her. He said nothing to her either when she was in the room. He just listened to her clearing up the glass and whispering charms to dry the pages of the first editions that had been damaged in James' fit of rage. She was there for five short minutes before he heard her get up and walk towards the door to leave.

'I'm sorry Lily.' he said quietly. He wasn't sure if she heard.

* * *

It was a sombre affair, that Thursday afternoon. Nobody spoke much. It was a small service in the church presided over by an officiate from the Ministry. James, Lily, Sirius, Remus and Peter sat in the front pew in that order and the rest were filled up by Jane's friends, work colleagues and some regular patients of hers who she had helped so deeply. Through the service, Peter stared ominously at the casket, dreading death. Remus looked down for most of it, and read and re-read the programme of service. Sirius let silent tears roll down his cheeks as he wished that Jane Potter could know, just one last time, how grateful he was to her for taking him in and treating him as more of a son that his own mother ever had. Lily had her hand in his and also allowed tears to roll down her cheeks. James slouched slightly in the pew next to her and just stared as his mother's coffin.

This was final. This was it. It was the end. He would never be able to see, talk to or hug his mum ever again. And it stung. It stung more that Linda's death, his uncles or his Dads. He wasn't sure why. He loved his mum so completely. She was his mum. She had doted on him, provided him with everything he could possibly want, had yelled at him when he had been naughty and had laughed with him when he had told stupid jokes. She had been the last piece of real family he had had and she was gone. They were starting to know each other again after his education and her work had edged them apart and now, she would never see him grow any older than he was this minute. She would never see him finish the auror training programme, get his first proper job as an auror, get married, have kids or just have his feet up on the table one more time which she hated so much.

It had been six days since he had found her in bed, seemingly sound asleep. Six days since he had cried over this, choosing instead to drink his hurt away. Six days since he had spoken to her. He hadn't spoken to Sirius, Remus or Peter in three or more days. It had been just a few more days than that since he had forced all the funeral plans onto Lily. And it had been just a day between since he had drunkenly yelled at her and thrown a bottle of brandy against the bookcase in the study. That also meant that it had been a day between since he had spoken to her or felt her reassuring touch and, now, as he looked over at her comforting Sirius through the simple action of holding his hand, he realised that that should have been all he had needed to help him get through this day. But he had shunned it away. Even now as he realised this he couldn't reach for her.

He hated himself at this minute. He couldn't speak at his mother's funeral. He couldn't say any words when the officiate, at the burial, had asked if he had wanted to. He just shook his head. He couldn't reach for Lily like he wanted too, comfort Sirius like he wanted to or make sure Remus and Peter were ok as he wanted to. He could have done. They were the only ones allowed at the burial with him so no one else would be around to witness what he would deem as a few weak seconds in his life. Not that they could tell he needed them. He was stood away from them all by at least two feet. Peter and Remus stood with hands in their pockets looking at the coffin being lowered into the grave and Sirius and Lily stood with their arms linked, Lily's head on Sirius' shoulder as they both poured out silent tears. James wasn't even crying.

It wasn't until the coffin was in the ground and the officiate had left that he even spoke to them. 'Thanks for…coming guys.' he said, not looking at any of them.

Remus gave a weak smile. Peter did nothing. And as Lily lifted her head from Sirius shoulder to go over to James, she was beaten to the punch by Sirius who flung himself at James and hugged him tightly. James was momentarily shocked but then hugged him back.

'Don't know how you're holding this together man.' Sirius whispered into his ear, 'You're stronger than I am.'

'Believe me.' James said, pulling himself away from his best friend, 'I'm not.'

Sirius nodded his head, understanding. He had known James long enough now and knew he just wanted to be alone. It was what he did and you couldn't ever change it for love or money. 'See you at home then.' he said, clapping a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He hugged him again briefly and then turned and strode away.

Remus and Peter gave James one last apologetic look and a solemn nod of their heads before walking after Sirius. Lily looked at James a little longer than the boys did but still began to follow their lead. But it was _now_ that James lost his inhibitions and reached out for her, finally succumbing to the need for contact. Perhaps it was because Sirius had forced him into it first by flinging himself in for a hug, unashamed that he had needed it. But whatever it was, James was actually glad for the surrender.

He caught Lily's wrist and pulled her back towards him. He encircled her in his arms and hugged her, feeling all at once comforted and yet completely overcome by grief. It was now, now that everyone was gone that he allowed himself to cry. Tears ran down his cheeks, and sobs began to rack his body. If it wasn't for Lily jumping into action, hugging him back and soothing him, he probably would have jumped into the grave with his mum, ready to join her and unable to let go. But Lily was there for him. And that was better in solution.

They stood, just holding each other, for quite a long time. They had been wrapped up in each other's arms, James finally crying again and Lily finally being able to comfort him, that they hadn't noticed that the officiate had returned to prep the grave for filling. He had to uncomfortably butt in and apologetically ask them to leave. They did oblige though and ended up walking around the compound of what muggles believed to be ancient ruins of 'a lost church' until they found a bench to sit on.

'Are you ok?' Lily asked James. He had stopped crying now. She was thankful he had cried though. It was better than him drinking the five bottles of brandy that he had left outside the study door a couple days ago. She had taken them into the kitchen when she had found them but she had left them in plain sight so he could find them if he wanted to even though she prayed he wouldn't. He didn't touch them in the end. She didn't know if he had actually had a drink over the past couple of days. She assumed not. She couldn't smell it on him and it did give her a sense of relief.

James nodded his head. He thought for a second. He didn't want to go home but, he didn't want to leave Lily at the minute. It surprised him how much he needed her. It scared him a little too; something he thought would never happen when it came to his relationship with her. Still, there was also that little part of him that just wanted to be alone to sort this all out in his head. And that part was starting to take over. But before it did completely and before he ran to solitary, he took Lily's hand.

'Lily, I'm sorry about the other day.' he said quietly. 'I shouldn't have…snapped at you like that. I shouldn't have taken it out on you. I'm sorry for that. And…I'm sorry for worrying you with…drinking. I've stopped now.'

'I know you have.' Lily smiled sadly, 'And I know this has been hard for you. It's ok.' she said in reply to his apology, pushing his hair back off of his forehead.

James shook his head and took the hand Lily had on his face into his own hand and brought it down. 'No.' he shook his head. 'No it's not ok.'

He took a deep breath. He felt he needed to explain once and for all why he disappeared when things got bad. She deserved to know. After all, she had never been like his friends. They had gotten used to it; let him get on with it. She had always sought him out. She deserved to know why he had pushed her away from doing so. She deserved to understand why he needed time away from the situation, time to himself. She was the one person he should be able to tell anything to and he discovered that she was the one person he actually _wanted_ to tell everything to. He prepared himself to finally let himself be open to judgement.

'I've never been very good at handling the bad stuff.' he began, 'When I was little, when I was at home I was better. Because I had Linda to talk to. If I ever felt upset or angry I would go talk to her because…she couldn't judge me. She wasn't allowed. It's against the 'code' of the house elves. And I never spoke to my parents when I was like that cause…well…more often than not they'd been the ones to upset me or make me angry. And at Hogwarts, I just didn't let anyone see that side of me. I didn't want people to see me as weak. And I know that getting angry and crying and, having any other emotion that isn't joyful isn't weak. And I don't see it as weak if anyone else is like that. But I do if it's me.'

He finally looked up at her. She looked both sad, proud, supportive and interested. He continued.

'I can't be weak Lily, I have to be strong.' he said, shaking his head and looking back down to where he was moving his thumb over her hand. 'Remus struggles with his lycanthropy every day. He says he doesn't but he does and it puts him down. Sirius comes from a family who he hates and who hates him. He has no one and that's just… And Peter. He is suffocated by his mum. And he's never gonna have the confidence that Sirius has even though he tries. He needs protecting. So I don't let them see me be weak. Because I have to be strong for them.'

'That's a lot of pressure to put on yourself James.' she said, placing her other hand on their already entwined ones stopping his thumb moving. 'You don't have to block your own feelings in favour of theirs. Yours are just as important, especially now.'

James just nodded his head dismissively. 'But I don't block my feelings from myself, just other people.' he clarified. 'I don't want people to see me break down. So…that's why I disappear when I'm feeling that way so that they don't see it. It's just what I do. It's what I'm used to. It's how I deal with it. And, you know they saw it sometimes but I've always tried to make sure that didn't happen and now, this minute…You're the only one who knows why.'

'And…you didn't disappear this week because…I called you out on it the day before.' Lily realised.

'I just wanted to…show you that I could stick it out.' James shrugged. He went on, shaking his head as he did. 'But you didn't force me to stay and I shouldn't have accused you of that. It was my choice and I handled it all wrong. But I'm trying to do it right now.'

Lily nodded. 'But you still want to disappear.' she stated.

'I just need to be on my own for a bit.' James said quietly. 'But, I'm hoping, because I'm telling you that's what I'm doing, that it's better.'

Lily thought for a second. 'I guess it is.' she said, 'I'm never gonna not want you to talk to me about your feelings and your problems. But I guess…if you need to sort it out on your own first, then that's just what's gonna happen. At least I understand it a bit better now though.'

'Thank you.' James said, kissing her on the forehead and standing up, 'I will be back tonight.' he promised her before beginning to walk away. He had broken down enough in front of her he didn't want it to happen again.

'But James?' she said catching his hand and entwining her finger loosely in his.

James looked down at her in question. Something which she was all too willing to answer.

'I love you no matter what.' she said, 'And I don't care if you cry or get angry because it doesn't change who you are to me. I want you to share it _with_ me. I won't judge you.'

* * *

James was sat in the three broomsticks in Hogsmeade. He had taken what Lily had said on board but her recent words of 'I won't judge you' and the 'your mother would not be proud of you' from a couple of days still rang through his mind racing for the prominent spot in his head. He couldn't decide at first which one it was that he had needed to figure out in his head. Which one had been the cause of him to still walk away from her in the graveyard and apparate to the three broomsticks, order a Butterbeer, sit at the bar and stew in his own thoughts. In the end, after two butterbeers, something which would really have no effect on his alcoholic intake, he decided it was the latter option. His mother wouldn't be proud of him.

Why would she be proud of him? He had done nothing particularly worthy in his life so far. He had played up all the time whilst he was at Hogwarts and, although he did stop bullying people, turned his attitude around slightly for the better, helped people out during the Hogsmeade attacks and become head boy, he didn't see any of that as helpful towards the world that his mother, and his father for that matter, had contributed so whole-heartedly towards. The fact that patients of his mothers had shown up to her funeral alone proved that she was a remarkable woman. James wouldn't have anyone like that there at his funeral at the minute. He had saved no lives, made none better. Not where it counted.

'Mr Potter.' came a voice from next to him, 'You look perplexed. Why, may I ask, is that?'

James looked to the side of him and saw his old headmaster stood near him. He had just come in and had noticed James sat at the bar looking a bit sorrowful.

'Just thinking about something Lily said.' he replied truthfully to his headmaster. Really, it was none of his business but, it was Dumbledore and…he knew his parents didn't he?

'Sir?' James began again, he turned fully to face Dumbledore who was handing his outer robes to Madam Rosmerta ready to be hung up. He needed an outsider's perspective and who better that Dumbledore? 'You knew my parents didn't you?'

'Yes I did.' Dumbledore replied solemnly. He cocked his head to one side. 'By the way, my condolences. It was terrible to hear such sad news. She was a remarkable woman.'

James nodded his head and muttered thanks. He took a drink of his Butterbeer whilst Dumbledore ordered a bottle of oak-matured mead from Madam Rosmerta, settling himself at a stool two seats down from James.

James thought for a minute. He glanced at Dumbledore who was humming under his breath, looking around the pub with his fingertips touching, his skinny elbows resting on the bar. He decided to ask him.

'Sir.' he prodded, 'Do you think my parents would be proud of me?'

Dumbledore looked curiously over to James, wondering what he was getting at. 'All parents are proud of their children.' he answered, 'And it is my understanding that you are intending to follow in your father's footsteps. Are you not currently enrolled in the auror training programme at the ministry? Surely they would be proud of that. It is a high honour.'

'Yeah.' James nodded. 'I suppose.'

'You are not satisfied with that answer Mr Potter?' Dumbledore deduced.

James sighed. 'It's just…I don't think I'm following in his footsteps. Or my mums.' he said, staring at the bottle in his hand and picking at the label. 'They helped. They changed people's lives. All I can do is tell you it's illegal to charm a microwave and set it loose in a muggles house. And I don't even know what a microwave is.'

Dumbledore chuckled. 'I'm sure what they are teaching you will serve you well as an auror one day.'

'Fat lot of good that'll do really.' he said cynically, 'I don't know…I just thought being in the auror training programme when there's actually a war going on would be the best way to help people. My mum and dad helped people all their lives and I'm sure, if they were here, they'd be on the front line trying to fight Voldemort.'

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows.

'I wouldn't be proud of me if I was them.' he muttered, 'People are disappearing, being tortured and cursed and killed and I'm…reading.' he finished glumly.

Dumbledore looked at James thoughtfully and waited to see if he would continue.

'I'm doing nothing to help.' he said, taking another sip of his butterbeer. 'Nothing.' he repeated, 'And I don't know if I'm ok with that.'

By this point, Dumbledore had heard enough. 'Madam Rosmerta.' he said, catching her attention at the other end of the bar, 'Would you please take my drink up to my room?' When she nodded, he turned to James. 'Mr Potter?' he asked, catching James' attention. 'Would you care to join me for a drink? I have something I would like to discuss with you.'

* * *

**Oooh! Whats gonna happen? :O (You've probably guessed)**

**Anyway! That's it for today! The next update will be on the 18th of July!**

**Review if you'd like to please but you don't have to! :)**

**Galindaba**


	16. Chapter 15

**Hey everyone!**

**Here's your 18th of July update a little earlier than planned! DogO! ASK AND YE SHALL RECIEVE! :D**

**And, as an extra little bonus, I will _still_ update on the 18th for anyone who wants to know! (or get a little excited about maybe?) I've got my speed on with these few chapters cause James' emotional stability here really fascinates me. This is a turning point in the story so other things start to happen and dominoes fall and woohoo it's fun to write! So busy, busy, busy. Plus I have no social life so I'm sure that helps :p**

**And a thank you to naturalme9 for your review too! I'm so glad you think this is well written! Sometime's I'm not sure so it's lovely to hear you think that! Thank you! :D**

**Here's Chapter Fifteen! I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen**

James followed Dumbledore solemnly up the rickety staircase in the three broomsticks that led to the rooms usually booked for people to stay the night it. A lot of parents used the facility so that they could visit their children at Hogwarts or else tourists from other countries who wanted to visit the Shrieking Shack and the all magical town would book a few days stay at the little pub. So really, James was a bit confused as to why Dumbledore would ask to discuss something with him in one of these rooms. What was it that couldn't be discussed in a bar?

Dumbledore pushed open the third door along and swept into the room hidden behind it. James, with his hands in his pockets, a little bit curious and a little bit wary, followed him in. He closed the door behind him and looked around the room with a questioning look. All the usual furniture that James was used to being in one of these rooms, (made familiar to him from visits to his uncles house with his mum and dad when he was just a small boy), was gone. Instead, there were two armchairs by the fireplace with a small low table between them and a hat stand near the door. That, however, was it. No beds, no breakfast carts and no vanity mirrors. The room seemed to have been stripped back to its bare essentials. But James had no idea as to why that was.

'Please,' Dumbledore started, gesturing to one of the seats in front of the fireplace, 'have a seat.'

James paused for a minute before doing so. It was rather late and he had told Lily he would be home tonight so he didn't want to stay to long. But when he rethought it, he realised that she would have probably gone to bed already and so, it wouldn't really matter what time he returned just so long as he was quiet. Besides, he didn't even know if what Dumbledore wanted discuss would take that long. He didn't know what it was. For all he knew, it could be a quick, personal condolence about his mother's recent passing or even advice on how to cope in the auror training programme as that was what he had kind of been complaining about down in the bar. So, with no indication of what it was Dumbledore wanted, he sat down.

Dumbledore sat opposite him, crossed his legs and clasped his hands together. He studied James' body language for a second: the boy glancing inquisitively around the room and leaning back it the chair mildly relaxed, so it would seem. It was a moment before he spoke.

'Mr Potter.' Dumbledore said, capturing James' attention once more, 'What was it you meant downstairs when you said that you didn't know if you were all right with doing nothing to help in the fight against Voldemort?' he asked him curiously.

James thought, 'I dunno.' he shrugged. 'That I want to do something to help and contribute but at the minute I don't think I am and I don't like it?' He finished with a questioning tone at the end of his sentence. He shrugged again; not knowing if that was the answer Dumbledore was looking for. In all honesty, he didn't even know what the question he had asked him was all about so finding the correct answer would have been difficult anyway. As it was, Dumbledore seemed to accept his response as appropriate and nodded his head.

'You mentioned that your parents, had they still been alive, would have been on the front line of the war with Voldemort?' Dumbledore prompted quietly.

'Yeah.' James replied. 'But that was their jobs. I mean, my dad was an auror and my mum's a…' he paused and closed his eyes, rethinking his sentence. He opened them and started again. 'She _was_ a healer. So naturally they would be on the front line.'

'But if it hadn't been for their jobs, do you believe that they would have wanted to join the fight?' Dumbledore asked.

James paused. He blinked a couple of times looking a tad confused. Why was Dumbledore asking him this? What was the point? His parents, no matter if they had been willing to be the ones who took on Voldemort themselves, were both dead. They would never be able to do that. Why was he asking if they would?

'My parents are dead.' James stated bluntly. 'I can't really say if they'd be there fighting Voldemort and his stupid little minions first hand if they weren't an auror and a healer because they aren't around anymore for it to actually matter.'

'Hmmm…' Dumbledore hummed, bringing a long slender finger to his lips in thought. He stared at James intently for a little while before speaking again. 'You are not afraid to call him by his name?' he asked.

'Who?' James said.

'Voldemort.' Dumbledore explained simply, examining James for a visible reaction, a shiver of fear against the name as he had seen Marlene McKinnon and Benjy Fenwick take on at his last meeting with them in this room. In James however, there was no trace of alarm. In fact, he looked rather sceptical.

'Why would I be afraid to call him that?' James asked with a derisive expression. 'It's just some stupid word he made up.'

'I suppose you're right.' Dumbledore chuckled.

There was again, silence in the room. James looked at his watch. It was almost midnight. Lily would be going to bed around now if she wasn't there already. So would Sirius and Remus and Peter. It had been a long exhausting day and, if he was shattered, he was sure they would be too. Plus, Madame Rosmerta would want to close up shortly. And it seemed that this conversation with Dumbledore was a tad pointless. James sighed and pushed himself to standing.

'Look, sir.' he said, 'Thanks for talking to me and listening to me…ramble about stuff downstairs but, it's been a long day and this seems to be a bit pointless to be honest so I'm gonna go home and-'

'Mr Potter I have organised a group of remarkable witches and wizards who are, not only exceptional in combat and able to consistently thwart many attacks constructed by Voldemort, but who also have strong moral fibre.' Dumbledore interrupted.

James' mouth fell open a little bit in shock. This was not what he had expected. He didn't actually know quite what he _had _expected but it definitely wasn't this. He sat back down again, slowly, and leaned forwards interestedly to listen to what Dumbledore had to say to him.

'However, none of them can utter his name.' Dumbledore finished.

James just nodded. What was this? An invitation? A random bit of praise before he was sent on his way? He didn't know.

'Now,' Dumbledore continued, 'I am paraphrasing slightly here but nevertheless, I shall go on. Were you serious when you said that you wanted to help people?'

'Well…' James swallowed, thinking it over. He hadn't really said that. He had said that he had thought the auror training programme would have been the best way to help people, but it wasn't. He had said that his parents were people who helped other throughout their lives and who, he was sure, would be on the front line trying to protect as many as they could. He wanted to make proud. And he had said that he didn't think he was doing that. He wasn't sure he was helping and he wasn't sure if he was ok with it. But Dumbledore had said that he was paraphrasing. So, when it came down to it, had James just basically specified that he wanted to join the war effort against Voldemort?

'Yeah.' James stated surprisingly surely. 'Yeah I was serious.' he nodded. 'I want to help.'

* * *

A few hours later, James apparated back to the mansion and into the kitchen. There was evidence of the fact that, (now that it was past one in the morning), his mother's funeral had taken place only yesterday. There were flowers along the kitchen sides and wreaths lain on the table, all from people she had worked with or helped in some way. A lot of them had brief condolence cards attached to them, something which James neither wanted to see or read. But tonight, that wasn't hard to avoid for he had very big decision to make.

When Dumbledore had laid out his proposal fully to him, explained everything that taking up his offer would detail, he had also made James promise that he would think about it before either accepting or declining his offer. He had been told that either answer was ok. It was a huge decision, not to mention life changing. He would not only turn his own world upside down but those around him too. He would put them in constant danger if he agreed to join his resistance group. He had thought of this at the three broomsticks and Dumbledore had offered that they join too for he knew they all had their hearts in the right place and all but perhaps Peter matched James in duelling skills, step for step. But as James had refused to leave Peter out, Dumbledore had graciously opened out the invitation to him too. But even if they refused to join, they would still be at risk by mere association with him for James knew his answer already.

James looked around the kitchen and after grabbing himself a glass of water, decided he couldn't stand in there much longer. The overwhelming sense of loss hit him like a tidal wave when he was in there thanks to the sea of sorrys sent to him about his mother. Also, the floral stench was a little overpowering and was starting to give him a headache. So he, along with his surprisingly refreshing drink, headed out of the kitchen to make the long walk up to the bedroom he was sharing with Lily. He would have apparated up there if he hadn't been worried that the crack would wake her. However, as it was, he didn't actually need to worry about this for when he reached his sitting room, he found them all in there.

Remus and Lily were the only ones awake when James entered the room. Peter was curled up in a ball on the floor, snuggling into a sheep skin rug and Sirius was laying face down, legs and arms spread on one of the regal looking couches. Remus and Lily however, were sat together on another of the sofas. They were both still dressed in black; funeral attire. Lily had her legs tucked up into her, a blanket over her legs modestly as she was wearing a demure dress. She holding a steaming cup of tea and Remus leaning back into one of the corners with his arms resting along the back and the arm of the couch, also had tea. It was he who noticed James first.

'Hey.' he said in greeting with a weak smile. He looked at his watch. 'You were gone a while.'

James nodded slowly in agreement. 'Yeah…' he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. 'Yeah I was. What are you all doing in here?' he asked as he neatly dodged his way around Peter, past a zonked out Sirius and then Remus to go sit on the arm of the sofa next to Lily.

'I wanted to wait up for you to see how you were and they decided to keep me company.' Lily said, placing a hand on James leg just above his knee.

'Some company these two turned out to be though.' Remus joked half-heartedly.

'You didn't have to wait up.' James replied to Lily, ignoring Remus' comment. He took a hand out of his pocket to take Lily's. 'But thank you.' he added sincerely on the end.

Lily squeezed his hand and smiled a grimacing smile at him. She rubbed her thumb reassuringly along the back of his hand and looked up at him. James smiled sadly down at her and pulled his other hand out of his pocket to push her hair back and kiss her on the top of her head. Lily closed her eyes as he did.

'Where'd you end up going?' Remus asked James, hoping that he wasn't intruding on something James considered to be too personal. He didn't want to push him in any way. The emotional wounds of having to bury his mother would still be fresh and in the forefront of his mind. At least, he thought they would. He didn't know James, in the space of a few hours had acquired other things to think about right now.

'The Three Broomsticks.' James said with a nod of thought. He was thinking. Because, whilst he only really wanted to share with Lily what he had been thinking about whilst he was on his own, what had transpired when he had 'disappeared' concerned all of them. And if he waited and asked to speak to them all in the morning, set aside a time for the conversation they needed to have, they may think that he was to tell them something different. He didn't know exactly what they would think it was but it would be more worrisome than it was worth. Besides, there was no telling if he would be able to get them all together after this to speak to them. Peter wasn't yet living at the mansion full time and wouldn't be until he found the courage to tell his mother he was moving out. And Lily, he knew, had to go home eventually and back to the healer training programme. He supposed he and Sirius had to do the same with the auror programme soon as well. So he really could see no reason as to why he couldn't tell just Lily and Remus now and then tell Sirius and Peter when they woke up or when he was next alone with them. 'I ran into Dumbledore.' he said.

'What did he have to say?' Lily asked, squeezing James' hand. She knew Dumbledore knew of Jane Potter's death. He had been on the list of people she, Remus and Peter had sent notification letters too.

'He offered me a…position, of sorts.' James went on carefully.

'Like a job?' Remus wondered.

'No.' he shook his head and looked down at his hand in Lily's. 'No it's not paid. It's sort of voluntary.' He took a moment and frowned, his lips disappearing slightly as he thought of how exactly to word Dumbledore's proposition. 'He's formed a group that fights against Voldemort called the Order of the Phoenix. He's offered me the option to join.'

He looked up after he had spoken and saw two very different expressions staring back at him. Remus looked mildly interested, his eyebrows raised and his mouth slightly open. He was gently tapping against his cup of tea absentmindedly with his forefinger as if he was thinking deeply about something. Lily had a very different look about her though, in principal, it was the same. Her eyebrows were too raised and her mouth slightly open but she was not tapping against her tea cup in thought and she did not look mildly interested. She had gone a little pale in all actuality, looking as if she had just seen a ghost. James wasn't sure what this meant.

'He's also said that, if you lot wanted, you were more than welcome to join too.' James added, speaking more to Remus as he was rather certain that his look of interest meant he was thinking of it himself.

There was a moment's pause.

'Well-' Remus started. But he didn't finish his sentence then as he was interrupted by Lily. She was quiet about it but she was still able to gut him off.

'Too?' she asked James, focusing on the last part of his sentence to Remus. She took her hand out of James' gently and placed her cup of tea on the coffee table in front of the sofa she and Remus were sat on, James on the arm. She put it down and then sat back up and turned to James, searching his eyes. 'James what did you say to Dumbledore?'

James frowned slightly and blinked. 'Well,' he swallowed, 'He told me to think about it but, essentially, I said I'd like to join.'

Lily let out a breath of disbelief. 'James how could you do that? How could you sign your life away so carelessly?'

'It's not careless.' James said, his own disbelief in his voice, 'And it's not signing my life away. It's agreeing to help people. I thought you'd understand that.'

'I understand wanting to help people but this is a big decision.' Lily replied, 'And when you agree to join a war you are essentially saying you are prepared to die.'

'No you're saying you're prepared to fight.' James countered, looking to Remus for support. Remus nodded his head at James' theory.

Lily looked between the pair of them and shook her head slightly. 'Death is an inevitability of war.' she stated, 'And I don't know if you've given that the full consideration it deserves. Please _think_ about this. Do you understand what you're doing?'

James paused and looked into her pleading eyes. She was begging him to understand the gravity of his decision, not realising if he had thought it though properly. But he had. His decision was clear. Nothing had been clearer to him in his life. He understood what he was doing. 'I'm agreeing to help people.' James stated surely, 'What's wrong with that?'

Lily couldn't answer. This troubled her greatly. It was well know that, after a loss, you shouldn't make any life-changing decision as they can never be judged properly through grief. You could do something at this stage that you later all regret because you haven't thought it all the way through. Logic and reasoning goes out the window when someone you love dies and, suddenly, it's very hard to judge what you should be doing. It's very hard to apply any reasonable perspective on things. You either start to overthink everything or not think things through at all. And Lily was worried that this applied to James in this situation. The other thing that troubled, as well as annoyed her, was the fact that Dumbledore would make such an offer to James at a time like this. Surely he must know better? But he wasn't there to talk to at the moment and she couldn't think of anything that would make James stop and think about this for a minute. She turned to Remus for a bit of support.

Remus breathed and leaned forwards to put his tea on the low table next to Lily's. He sat back up and began to talk. 'Lily we've just been saying that if there was a way to help the people affected by this war we would do it.' he shrugged, 'Seems like fates given us a way in.'

'You'd join?' James asked Remus.

'Yeah.' Remus said almost straight away, his hesitation only caused momentarily by the expression on Lily's face. She was obviously highly distressed with what he was saying as he agreed with James. 'I would join.'

James nodded his head. He turned to Lily and asked her the same question. She paused.

Yes, she and Remus had in all actuality just been talking about this very topic. They were both sure that the lack of news in the Daily Prophet about Voldemort and his followers was not a thing to be celebrated. They both believed that it meant he was going to do something big, sure that just because nothing had happened in a while didn't mean he had given in. Voldemort and his followers thought their cause was too strong to give up. Remus had said that it was a shame that people were letting their guard down now and Lily had agreed. She knew they had to be on alert at all-time both she and Remus were bound to be targets of his just by being, Lily to kill because she was a mudblood and Remus to recruit because he was a werewolf. But that was just them on constant alert. Other wouldn't think two seconds about it and they would be the ones in danger. She and Remus had just wished that there was a way to help these people, to help in this war. And Remus was right now. James bringing home this offer was fate trying to give them a way in. It was too big of a coincidence not to be.

She looked down and her hands and gave her honest answer to James. It wouldn't have been fair not too, but she did tread cautiously and give her reasons. 'I would join.' she said before looking him in the eyes and tried to get him to see her side. 'But that's me. I'm a target and so are loads of others who were born like me so it's only natural for me to want to fight it all. You're not a target.' she said, begging him to understand this, 'I know it's your choice and I know you want to help people. But after what's happened this week…when you're going through what you're going through you shouldn't put yourself in danger if there's no need for it.'

'There is a need for it.' James replied, 'It's my choice and I want to help people.'

'I know but-'

'You want to help. You've said it's not wrong for me to want to help. You've said it's my choice.' James pointed out, 'What exactly is the problem?'

Lily paused. It was late, she knew that. He had just lost his mum and buried her only hours ago. He was grieving and he had been soaking in alcohol just a few days before. He had only come off of that four day binge a couple days ago with some gently spoken harsh words from her and she didn't know how long it would take for that much alcohol to get out of his system fully. He had been constantly drinking and who knew if that was still affecting him even the tiniest bit. All of these were her reasons. This was her problem. He wasn't thinking clearly and it seemed to her as if Dumbledore could've taken advantage of his state of mind in order to recruit more soldiers for his war effort. Of course, she had no way of proving this. There was no way to prove if any of her worries were contributing factors to James' decision. And, after all, she knew that if it was her who had been offered the position, she'd have said yes straight away too. So right now she really didn't have a leg to stand on. She had to concede.

'Nothing.' she said.

It was quiet for a couple of seconds as the brief conversation came to its stopping point. They could all feel that, for tonight at least, it was over. Remus was the first to act on it though.

'Alright.' he said quietly as he stood up. 'I'm gonna go to bed. Do you want me to wake these two up or leave them here?' he went on, motioning to Sirius and Peter who were still fast asleep. He directed his question to James. Lily was sat disinterested, looking at her hands in her lap.

James shrugged. 'Leave them here.' he said, getting up too. He took hold of one of Lily's hands and gently pulled her to standing too. 'They look comfortable and waking Sirius up is a nightmare.'

'That's true.' Remus nodded his head. 'I'll see you guys tomorrow then. Night.'

'Night.' both James and Lily said out of sync with each other. They watched him leave the room before Lily turned to James to try, for one last time that night, to get him to see her way. But he didn't want to hear it anymore. Still, he knew the conversation between the two of them, a conversation that was very different than the one they had had with Remus, was not finished.

'Can we just go to bed?' he asked her cutting her off before she could say anything more, 'We'll talk about it all tomorrow ok? Right now I'm just ready to drop.'

Lily took a deep breath, looked to the ground and nodded. 'Ok.' she said.

'Thanks.' James replied, 'And we will talk about it more tomorrow. We will. Just not right now. Tomorrow.'

* * *

Tomorrow came and tomorrow went. Twice. And Lily and James still hadn't discussed the Order any further. James was still set in joining and now he had spoken to Peter and Sirius about it as well. They were on board too. Sirius had jumped at the chance. He hadn't even let James explain everything that Dumbledore had told him about the group fully. As soon as he heard there was a way for him to fight in this war, fight against Voldemort and his followers, (his followers consisting mostly of his extended family), he had agreed. And now that he was on board and Remus was on board and so was Peter after hearing that the other three were all too willing to do it, Lily realised that James would not be talked out of this. She was becoming increasingly worried about it all, about his reasons for joining the Order. There was this niggling feeling in the back of her mind that kept telling her it was an impulse decision that stemmed from his recent loss. She couldn't bat that feeling away but she also felt as if she couldn't talk to James about it.

She wouldn't be able to explain it in a way that he, or anyone else for that matter, would understand fully. It was odd. On one hand, she knew James. She knew how he felt towards people who were prejudice, people who discriminated against others because of a fact they couldn't control. She knew this because of Remus and she knew this because of herself, how James reacted to how they were both seen and treated by other witches and wizards. He had always been this way ever since she knew him. He was a little sod at Hogwarts and did bully people, no denying it, but he would always stand up for anyone who was discriminated against. If someone was called a half-breed, a mudblood or anything of the kind, he would go tooth and nail to defend them. He had done it for her on several occasions, even when they weren't dating. The most prominent memory in this area was of course the incident in fifth year with Severus. She had never seen James look so furious before but she had been to upset at what her best friend at the time had said to take any of it truly on board. So she knew that this was a decision that James was bound to have made. And the recent article in the Daily Prophet hadn't calmed down that flame. It made him raring to go.

According to the Daily Prophet, for the public's safety, there was to be a register taken of the whole of the wizarding world, (in the United Kingdom anyway), that basically stated what your blood status was, if you were of a mixed hereditary lineage and any afflictions you may have. Basically, in blunt crude laments terms, if you were a mudblood, a half-breed or, as Remus was, a werewolf or something similar. It was to become a legal requirement on any application forms for any potential jobs, homes or Ministry assistance. The reasons in that had been given by the Minister, to anyone who was blind to the discrimination, thought that Voldemort had waned or just couldn't care less, were in actuality rather eloquently put. It was 'a precautionary measure that must be undertaken to ensure that if there any more disappearances unfortunately linked with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, the reasoning behind it would be immediately clear and the auror department could step into action with no delays'. It was a law put in place 'to allow all employers, realtors or assistance assessors a full awareness of any and all protection measures that must be put in place to protect said certain individual'. James had declared that it was bullshit. That the second reason was basically a way of allowing employers, realtors or assistance assessors to know whether there was too great a risk getting involved with someone who would be targeted. It had angered him, this article, and the first sentence out of his mouth was along the line of the fact that it was good he was now in the Order and in a position to help stop this injustice. Sirius had agreed completely, as had Remus. Lily had become more concerned about it all.

She didn't want to stop him from eventually joining the Order, she just wanted to prevent him from doing it right now. He was incensed with anger at the article but he was consumed by grief for his mother. He couldn't be thinking straight. But they had kind of had this discussion already when he had come home and told her and Remus about it in the first place and she knew that he wouldn't want to repeat it, even if she knew she hadn't said her peace on the subject. It was such a difficult thing to bring up anyway. And to explain her hesitation, the reasons behind her wanting him to just take time and think it through properly, would not only be difficult but also cruel. To force James to relive the week of hell he had just had, the events that would not ever be over for him, would be horrible of her. She couldn't turn around to him and say that he should not join the Order of the Phoenix now because he had spent the past week highly intoxicated, because he was grieving, because he had just buried his mother. It would not be nice. Plain and simple. But Lily knew that she would want to tell him eventually. She couldn't, in good conscience, let someone she loved so whole heartedly just give up his life and put it in danger without a second thought just because another life had recently come to an end.

She couldn't get advice from anyone on how to deal with this though. She couldn't write to Alice or Frank because that would mean she would be telling them about the Order and, from what little she understood about the group, she knew it was top secret. And she couldn't write to her parents and ask them for advice on what to do if someone signed up for a war without thinking it through because then they would start to ask questions. She hadn't told them about the state of her world and she thought that would be best. They wouldn't worry that way. Her final option would be the boys. But Remus was not an option. He would probably listen to her but tell her, at the end of the day, James was gonna do what James was gonna do. There was no stopping him. Then he would just point out the fact that she was all too willing to join the Order as well. So she was probably fighting a losing battle in attempting to get James to stop doing exactly the same thing she had no issue doing herself. Peter would be useless to talk to. James wouldn't listen to him. And besides, Peter would go along with whatever James wanted so the road there was a dead end. Sirius wouldn't be willing to help her either. He wanted nothing more than to fight against his deranged family and the man they called their leader. And what better way to go into battle than with your best friend by your side? No. She was completely on her own in this and it was driving her crazy because it seemed she was the only one who saw this situation as worrisome.

It was one more thing on her list to stew about. It added to it astronomically. She already felt as if she had to walk on eggshells around James now. She didn't want to say something that would upset him so close after burying the only family he had left. It had only been one week, exactly one week today in fact, and she knew it had been the hardest week of his life. Besides, what they were doing at the minute, she supposed, already put him in a tender place.

'Have you checked in her room?' Lily asked James as they rooted through the sitting room that Jane had once had to herself. They were looking for her will. They still hadn't found it and James needed it. The will contained the deeds to the Potter estates and any and all earthly possessions they owned. James needed it to sign everything over to his name in order to keep them. Otherwise the Ministry department of Law and Regulation would either repossess them straight out or start to go through a long and tedious process to sign James as the rightful owner of all the properties left behind which would take a couple of years at least, especially considering how much the Potters actually owned. James would be in an out of the office every few days to sign over the smallest of things into his possession. It would be never-ending. If he hadn't legally been an adult, then it could have all been done by the legal executor named on the will, (if there was one). But he was of age now and it was all down to him. It was the law.

'I'm not going in that room.' James replied, opening a draw in the bureau which was full of letters. He took them out and motioned to Lily to help. If it would be anywhere, then this looked like a good place to start.

'I'll look in there later then.' Lily said.

'You're not going in there either.' James stated plainly, 'Nobody goes in there.'

Lily stood in momentary silence looking at him for a couple of seconds, trying to work out a good way to actually convince him to let her at least look in Jane Potter's room. She could think of none. If only wills weren't charmed to override the _accio _charm. Then all she need do was open the door a crack and summon the damn thing. But, as a legal document, such things were prohibited and extraordinary measures were taken by the ministry to ensure that the only way to reach such a document was by physically retrieving it yourself. Lily decided that perhaps she would sneak in there when James was occupied doing something else. She didn't know when he would leave the mansion properly again but perhaps she could convince Sirius and Remus to take him for a few laps around the Quidditch pitch. That would give her enough time.

The pair of them sat down and dropped the piles of letters on the low table in front of the sofa that Jane Potter had in her sitting room. They began routing through them but it seemed that every letter was a dead end.

'Nothing.' James said after half an hour, all the letters he had looked at discarded on the floor after he had found out that they weren't right.

'Nothing here either.' Lily said in reply, all the letters she had looked at in a neat pile on the table. 'Can you think of anywhere else it would be?'

'No.' James said bluntly, 'It's not like she came up to me and said 'hey James, I'm gonna die this week. Here's my will'.'

Lily didn't answer. Again, it was an egg shell situation. If she said something, told him there was no need to be like that, he might snap or cry or just disappear. She had done well over the past couple of days anyway. He hadn't left unexpectedly. He hadn't disappeared or gone to sit alone somewhere with his thoughts. She was also pretty sure he hadn't had a drink. She didn't exactly want to ruin that by turning around and calling him out on his attitude or tell him that she didn't want him to join the Order of the Phoenix. No. She thought it would be better if she just stayed quiet. Things would return to normal soon. She hoped. And perhaps he would both rethink his consignment to the Order and miraculously see the reasons why she was so hesitant about his joining or she would come to realise that it really didn't matter about the timing that the offer came along. It wouldn't have made a difference to the answer.

James sighed and leaned back on the sofa. He ran a hand through his hair and looked at Lily. She looked as if she'd just been told off. It was that kind of puppy dog look that people got when they felt as if they were doing something they shouldn't have been. James didn't want her to look like that and know he'd been the cause of it. He needed to stop snapping at her and being so harsh. So he tried to do something which, in any other situation when they were together, he would have done. He reached out and pulled her into him. She naturally curled into his side when his arm was around her shoulder and she tucked her feet underneath her, wrapping her arm around his waist and hugging him back as he kissed the top of her head gently before resting his head on hers. They sat there for a couple minutes silently before James spoke.

'Thanks for helping me look for the will.' he said, 'I'll look in mum's room for it later but I don't think it'll be there.'

'That's fine.' Lily said, 'There's other places it could be still.'

'Yeah.' James nodded, 'There are.'

Lily cuddled into him, breathing in his beech wood scent, thanking the heavens that the stench of alcohol that she had been used to just a few days ago had evaporated. If the situation were different, she would have revelled in this moment, both of them comfortable enough with each other to just sit there like that in a peaceful quiet, happy to just be with each other. But she was tense. And even though she knew she would never be able to explain it to a point where James would see her way, she couldn't allow herself to not say anything when she was worried for him, for his health. She cared too much for him to see him do something he may just later rethink.

'I don't want you to join the Order.' she said.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Review if you want to and the next update will be 18th of July and I will stick to it this time :p**

**Galindaba**


	17. Chapter 16

**Hey everyone!**** :D**

**Update for the 18th here :D bit of a long chapter but I hope you like it!**

**Thank you to those who have reviewed! **

**Clozza: *_Sirius style dramatics* _Give another cliffhanger? Me? :O I wouldn't! (Ok so I really like cliffhangers and there may be a few more coming up so please don't hate me for that! This chapters not a cliff hanger though! I promise! :D ) Thanks for your continued support! :D**

**imagionista:**** Thanks for you're review! You were right! :) I hope you liked the way that it was done because I really struggled to find a way that seemed natural for them to all be recruited and this was the only way, for me, that seemed to fit. Hope you liked it!**

**Ok. So obviously, his mums death isn't something James is gonna get over any time soon but this is the last chapter that focuses solely on it. After this, I'm moving on to other things! Order things! :D**

**Here's Chapter Sixteen! I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen**

James and Lily had not had the chance to talk about what Lily had said; that she did not want James to join the Order. Sirius had entered the room moments later and he and James had begun to talk about the excitement joining the Order would bring into their lives, comparing it to the mundaneness of the auror training programme. James could see Lily's anguish at his speaking so openly about it all but pretended to take no notice. He didn't want to feel bad about something he felt so right about. Especially now. He didn't understand why she would want to dissuade him from something that was so good, and something that she herself would do. After the bad that had befallen him this week gone, it made no sense to him. He did not want her to tell him to think it over; he did not want to hear her reasons for saying what she had, so he didn't allow her the opportunity to tell them to him. So instead, he sat with Sirius most of the night, wondering about what sorts of missions Dumbledore would want them to do, outwaiting her ability to stay up. She became too tired to keep herself awake and at half two in the morning, dropped off on the sofa not able anymore to wait for him and Sirius to finish their conversation and turn to the one she wanted to have. In the end, James was victorious and carried her up to bed with the knowledge that she was too exhausted to wake up and explain why she didn't want him to join the Order. And in the morning, when she woke up, he pretended to be asleep only 'waking up' a few minutes before she had to go home for the weekly Sunday dinner with her family. He had successfully evaded the conversation and decided he would only ever revisit it if it was on his terms. But that was highly unlikely to happen.

In his eyes, in agreeing to join the Order, there was no downside to his decision. There was no wrong or harm in his conscription and he didn't want to be told there was. Especially by her because, not only was it slightly hypocritical of her to want him to do one thing when she would do the other, but because he knew that if he looked into her eyes when she made her feelings clear and gave her explanations, he would bend to her will thanks to the tug and snap feeling that had already proved dangerous in the past. What had happened in this past week didn't change that. Besides, he was the one Dumbledore had offered this position to first hand and so he knew things, was offered something that the others weren't. It was something that he was eager to get sorted out as soon as possible as he was the only one who it could apply to. But none of the others knew about it and, given his way, they wouldn't. And he didn't want to tell Lily because of the way he knew she felt about it all already. He knew she would read into it as his priority reason in joining the Order. That's not saying it wasn't, but even if his signing up was down to this reason alone, he felt, was worth it. His offer of services in exchange for what Dumbledore had offered was a small price to pay to protect those he loved. Anyway, the Order, he was sure, was going to be a much more effective way to help those in need then the auror programme he was enrolled in was.

On Monday morning, when the compassionate leave Sirius had been granted by Williamson had come to a very abrupt end, he and James sat in the kitchen eating breakfast discussing whether they should actually make the effort to go to auror training or not. Of course, James didn't have to go in as Sirius did. If he wanted, he still had an extra week to take some time to grieve. But Sirius moaned that it wasn't fair that they didn't get the same amount of time. James had agreed it wasn't fair too but, rather than allowing Sirius to get into trouble for extending his leave without permission, he had thought it was best to shorten his time and go in with Sirius to class. Still, neither of them really wanted to go. They never did really. Even when James had decided, thanks to a talk with Lily, that they should probably actually give it the good old college try, it was still such an effort in the morning to get up and go. He had to force himself awake and then wake Sirius up and try and concentrate enough in the lesson to listen the information he had already read. But it was dull. Then they had to come home and continue with the boredom in their own time and re-read everything and read some new things and answer question sheets. He had managed to do it. Just. But Sirius hadn't had the attention span to do the same. So now, even though James had already offered to sacrifice his allowed time off, telling Sirius that it was all so he would not get in trouble, Sirius didn't care. He was still trying to convince him that they didn't really have to go in. For him there would be consequences for missing. It didn't bother him though. He didn't like the programme. Theory wasn't his thing, practical was. And this was what they were discussing now.

'I mean, we're in the Order now.' Sirius said through a mouthful of cheeri owls. 'We're basically aurors already but without the three years of useless theory.'

'The theory's not really useless.' James sighed half-heartedly.

Sirius gave him an 'are you kidding me' look and James shrugged.

'Well it's not.' he said, 'In a few years when we're probationary then I'm sure knowing the difference between veritaserum and water will be a big help.'

'Maybe.' Sirius shrugged, taking another heaped spoonful of his breakfast, 'But at the minute it's just dull. The Order is bound to be way more fun.'

'I don't really think Dumbledore had our amusement in mind when he invited us join.' James said, 'I think he's more concerned with, you know, protecting people.'

'Yeah but if we enjoy that and have some fun kicking death eater arse at the same time where's the harm in that?' Sirius pointed out, some milk dribbling down his chin as he spoke. He attempted to lick it away but found he couldn't reach his tongue that far down his chin so used the back of his hand instead. James shook his head at him with a chuckle. It was the first time he'd even cracked a smile since the other week. Sirius felt proud of himself.

'Do you not wanna go today then?' James asked him finally, stopping beating around the bush with talk of theory and it's undecided usefulness.

Sirius plonked his spoon down in his bowl. 'Do you?' he counter-questioned.

James lent back and folded his arms in thought. He looked at the sheer lack of enthusiasm in Sirius' face and actually found he shared the same sentiment. Whether that was because he was still grieving or because he loathed Williamson who taught them or perhaps because he thought that the auror training programme was actually boring to him too, he didn't know. What he did know was that his mum would have been upset if he didn't go, as would his dad have been. He was sure Lily wouldn't mind him missing one or two at the minute, still being rather cautious around him. And with revealing that she didn't want him to join the Order just yet, she would just be happy that he was taking some more time to address his feelings. But he felt that he had done that and didn't need to do so again. What he needed to do right now was decide: was the auror training programme where he wanted to be right now? Did he want to go? Was it of any use to him anymore?

'You know what?' James said with a large exhale of breath. He leant forwards onto the table and gave Sirius an earnest expression. 'I think we should go in today.'

* * *

At lunch time, willing herself to focus on other things, Lily sat at a high lunch table with her friend in the healer training programme, Thomas Ralston. They were both sat on high stools and they were both reading books: he on how to heal cursed cuts and she 'The Collector' by John Fowles. She had resorted to a fictional book because now, upon reading about things to do with her course, she was reminded all too vividly of things she did not want to think of at this moment. So instead, she had escaped back into her muggle world, the one she had grown up in, unharmed by prejudice and untouched by war, through the way of one of the books her dad had bought her weeks ago when they went to the opening of the new bookstore in her town. It was the time she had cancelled plans with James to do so. The result: 'The Collector', which was very interesting. And she'd only read the first thirty pages or so. She was so engrossed in it that she didn't particularly notice that Thomas had stood up and collected most of his things together.

'I go back to the room.' he said, his Norwegian accents coming through, some words missing from his sentence. He slung his bag over his shoulder, 'You come?'

Lily looked at her watch briefly. They still had another ten minutes left of their lunch break yet and she was rather intrigued by the disturbed boy who collected butterflies in her book. 'I'm gonna just finish this chapter.' she said, turning a page.

'Ok.' Thomas replied, 'See you there.' He touched her shoulder momentarily in goodbye before he walked away, leaving Lily to her book. However, even though Lily desired to be left alone, it was something she wasn't going to get for she had caught the attention of some girls who she'd rather not speak too.

'So what's going on with you two then?' Nellie asked her. She, along with Midge, (the Scottish girl), and Myfina, (the Liverpudlian girl), who had stood behind her in the queue when she had enrolled for the induction day of the course, joined her around the table she was sat on. They didn't sit down but instead, leant as a wall of three opposite her, curving along the rounded table.

'I don't know what you mean.' Lily stated, determined to read her book. She reread the sentence they had interrupted her on and found her speed again. But she was quickly interrupted.

'Are you and James Potter over?' Midge probed, raising her eyebrows expectantly at her. The other two girls looked sickeningly hopeful.

Lily let down her book and looked astonishingly at the nosey girls. They had not once spoken to her during this course, and they had been on it for six weeks or so now. They had blanked her for quite a while, not that she minded. On the day when their tutor had cancelled their class in favour of going to a Quidditch game, the day James had come to surprise her at the hospital, they had asked everybody else in the class if they wanted to go shopping bar her. Not that she minded. Their doing that and then their subsequent absence meant two things: one, she wasn't bothered by their high-pitched squealing laughs and their stupid little inside jokes, and two, when James had come to see her, though she was annoyed with it at first, they hadn't sat and ogled him. And now, now they had seen her sit with someone of the opposite gender, they assumed that her relationship had gone belly-up and she was moving on with Thomas. Or rather, they hoped.

'Believe it or not, you can be friends with guys without anything going on and no. James and I are not over, thank you very much.' she said, answering both of their questions in one go. She was aiming for them to leave her alone to her book. And what better way to establish this then telling them, which was something she was not afraid to do. 'Now, I'd appreciate it if you left me alone to read thank you.' she stated succinctly, obvious in telling them to leave. But they didn't. Not that they continued to speak to her though. Just about her, her boyfriend and her friends, right in front of her.

'I told you they hadn't broken up Nellie!' Myfina said, 'You think everyone's broken up.'

'Well she and the Ralston boy did look quite cosy.' Nellie defended, 'It's only natural to assume and you can't tell me you didn't want to know.'

'Whatever.' Midge answered in place of Myfina, 'Besides, I don't think she'd go from having someone like James Potter to someone like him. Talk of a downgrade.'

Lily exhaled loudly and put down her book. 'I'm right here you know.' she said, 'If you're gonna talk about my love life, something which is apparently _fascinating_ to you, I'd prefer if you didn't do it right in front of me.' She gave the three girls a challenging look to which they just blinked at before continuing their conversation.

'So you wouldn't go for Thomas then?' Myfina asked Midge, turning back to her as if Lily hadn't spoken.

Lily rolled her eyes and just decided to let them get on with it and try to block them out. She would have moved but she was stubborn and she had been at this table first. She didn't particularly want to have to move for ten lousy minutes when she'd been sat there comfortably for the best part of half an hour.

'No way!' Midge said, wrinkling her nose as if the name Thomas brought a bad smell with it. It shouldn't have. In actuality, he was a lovely boy and rather handsome. What their problem with him was was anybody's guess. Perhaps it was because he always had his head in a book and his look of concentration made him seem constantly angry and miserable. But that wasn't the case. He was fascinating when you got to know him. However, these girls didn't seem to want to get to know someone before deciding on whether they would be a suitable partner for them. Besides, they seemed to still be stuck in Hogwarts mode; only fancying the boys that were popular, handsome and a little bit bad. AKA: the marauders.

'Sirius Black.' Midge went on. 'Now he's my type.' she turned to Lily. 'Do you know if he's seeing anyone?'

'I really don't know.' Lily answered through gritted teeth having, once again, to reread her sentence.

'Well what about that Remus Lupin guy?' Nellie asked, 'After James Potter I think I'd prefer him.' She looked at the other girls and whispered loudly as if it was a giant secret when, in all honesty, it was a widely known fact. 'Sirius Black seems too into his own looks. And Remus Lupin is smart too.'

'That's true.' Myfina nodded, going on to interrupt Lily again. 'Is he seeing anyone?'

Lily closed her book in annoyance. 'Look I don't think either of them are going to be in the mood to date anyone anytime soon.' she said harshly, irritation evident in her voice.

'Why not?' Midge wondered. It was an innocent wondering really but Lily was frustrated at their interest in her friends at this time. She was also bewildered at why they seemed to be stuck in a Hogwarts phase, still going after the guys they knew from there instead of going out into the real world and looking for someone new if they were that desperate to get a boyfriend. It's what she would have done if she was not with James and decided it might have been nice to meet someone.

'Yeah why not?' Nellie asked, reiterating Midge's question.

'Because James' mum just died.' Lily stated bluntly. 'Have some respect will you.'

The three girls' mouths dropped open. Nellie began to bite her lip and hold back an embarrassed giggle. She motioned to Lily to look behind her and, out of curiosity, she did. Her face dropped.

'James.' she said quietly. There was an awkward moment's pause.

James shoved his hands in his pockets and puffed out a breath of air. He grimaced and looked at her in question, wondering what she was doing telling his personal business to a group of girls who, although they knew exactly who he was, he didn't know at all. There was an undeniable sadness in his eyes, as if his heart had just broken into pieces at her words.

'Sorry.' Lily whispered apologetically, trying her hardest to ignore the smothered giggles behind her and the whispers of 'awkward'. They didn't have any courtesy for the situation. One look at James' face and you could tell this was not a laughing matter. It wasn't an angry matter either. It was just…sad.

James shook his head slightly and looked down to his shoes. He scuffed the floor with his foot as he said, 'It's ok.' He took a hand out of his pocket and ran a hand through his hair as he looked up at her, his head still slightly down as he did so. 'Can I talk to you for a sec?' he asked. 'Alone?' He offered her his hand as a way to show the girls, (whose whisperings and giggles were annoying him now too), that he wasn't mad at Lily which he wasn't. Just standing there for a couple of minutes with the three of them acting the way they were, he could only imagine what could have caused her to snap bluntly. But whatever it was, he believed she had to have been provoked. He knew she wouldn't have said anything if she wasn't trying to shut them up out of irritation. He was sure. She knew how he felt about personal matters. They were just that: personal.

Lily took James' hand and hopped down off of her stool. She left her bag and book on the table and allowed James to lead her through the tables and chairs of the visitor's tea room to a corridor that led to it. It was quite deserted and Lily thought that he would stop there but he didn't. He continued on, and led her out into the stairwell that led down to other floors if you didn't want to take the lift. Not many people used the stairs so it was quite deserted in there. James stopped and turned to face her, letting go of her hand.

'I'm sorry.' Lily apologised again, before James had a chance to say anything, 'I didn't mean to say that to them. They were just annoying me with questions of you and Remus and Sirius and I got frustrated at it all and-'

'It's fine.' James shrugged, swallowing hard, his hands back in his pockets, 'Not like it's not true.'

Lily looked at him sadly and stepped towards him, running a hand reassuringly down his arm. He was looking at the floor. 'You ok?' she asked him.

'Yeah.' he nodded. He took a second before moving out of her touch, not wanting to face the sympathy she gave him, and moved the subject on to why he had come to see her. 'Anyway, erm…' he began, closing his eyes and somewhat forcing out his sentence. 'I came to tell you I quit the auror programme.'

Lily took a small step back. The thoughts she had been pushing back, the ones she had been trying to block out by reading her book, all flooded her mind again after one sentence from him; the Order, James' state of mind, his grief, war and her anxiety over it all. All of it returned.

'You quit?' she asked, completely stunned at this information, 'Why would you do that?'

'To focus on the Order.' James said simply.

Lily's lips disappeared and she closed her eyes, her head turning slightly to the side. She shook her head ever so feebly but James noticed. And all of a sudden, he realised that the conversation he had successfully evaded until now was bubbling up to the surface. It was imminent and it was something he hadn't thought through properly when deciding to come and tell Lily what he had done. He had thought that informing her that he had turned in his books and code of conduct and everything that went with the auror training programme, was good news. He hadn't liked the course and she knew that. He hadn't stopped to consider that telling her this one thing, something which he believed to be great, would just lead back into reiterating her desires concerning him and the Order of the Phoenix. He just wanted to share with her some news which he thought was good, something he wanted support on as she was, what he considered, his whole support system now his mum was gone. He did not want a lecture. So he tried to cut it off before it began.

He sighed. 'I know you don't want me to-'

'No I don't want you to join the Order. Not right now.' Lily whispered tersely, stepping marginally closer to him. She was a very conscious that they were in a public stairwell and, whilst most witches and wizards preferred to take the lifts up as it was easier and quicker, some did opt for the stairs. Anyone could overhear their conversation. And Lily didn't want anyone to listen as she pleaded for him to see her way, to see what she found so hard to explain. The issues she had on this subject stemmed from worry for him. She hoped that he would see it if she could find a way to word it properly. And if she could, surely he would honour it and put her mind her mind at ease. Leave it all for at the very least a month. Maybe it was selfish of her to ask it but she was willing to risk looking selfish in order for him to stop and think things through, to consider all the implications of what he wanted to do when his was once again under a clear mind set instead of one that was consumed by grief.

'Why?' James asked, frustrated at not knowing why. Yes he had avoided the conversation and he didn't want to have it now, but he also wanted to know what it was he had been evading.

Lily looked at a loss for words. She looked around her searchingly. 'It's hard to explain-'

'Try.' James stated as bluntly as she had earlier when casually informing the three annoying girls in her class about his mum's death. He looked her in the eyes and she him until he stared her down and she conceded.

'Because you have had a hard week and to be perfectly honest I don't know how clear your thinking is right now.' Lily blurted out. It was the best she could do and she knew it wouldn't be enough but she had to try. 'You're not supposed to make big decisions after someone you love dies.'

She knew he wouldn't understand fully. Not because it wasn't valid or somewhat true but because he wouldn't want to know if this was the reason why. She watched in his eyes for a reaction, but apart from a flicker of sadness, similar to the expression he had worn when she had turned around to see him standing there in the visitor's tea room, there was nothing.

'You read that in a book?' James asked a little horribly, folding his arms and looking at her levelly. He wasn't accepting her answer. It sounded like garbage to him, not worth the conversation he had been deciding on whether or not to have. He shook his head. He didn't want to stand and listen to a waylaid excuse based on a theory from a stupid book. It wasn't him.

'Hate to break it to tell you Lils but books can't tell you everything.' he said, narrowing his eyes contemptuously. 'I know what I'm doing, I can make whatever decisions I like and if I want to join the Order and quit the auror programme to do it, then that's exactly what I'm gonna do. I just thought you might like to know, that you deserved to know and that you might, I don't know, support me through this but I guess that's not gonna happen so…' he tailed off, his chin jutting out as he looked away from her.

He didn't know what he expected really. He had come to her for the support he needed but he should have known that wouldn't happen. He had felt so sure about it all. So certain about everything. But the worry and pleading in her emerald green eyes made him question it and that was something that he didn't want to do. Besides, it was something he couldn't do. Quitting the auror programme was final. Williamson made it clear that there was no going back.

'You know what…' James began to say. But he couldn't think of anything to offer after this sentence. So he gave up as quickly as he had started. 'I need to find my mums will. I'll see you later.'

He turned and walked away from her, leaving her exasperated, looking after him and wondering if she should follow.

* * *

Hours later, James was searching through his mums room, looking for her will. He needed to find it. It was imperative that he did. So he had made that heart-wrenching decision to walk into the room that he had found her lifeless in a little over a week ago. He had stood at the door for ten minutes building up the courage to do so and had left it open now just in case he needed to leave suddenly. He couldn't grasp why it was so hard for him to face. James wasn't afraid of anything. Or at least, he was scared of very little. He wasn't too keen on thunderstorms but now he was older he could wait them out. He didn't like toads but he could be near them and could look at them without issue. But one step into his mother's room and he felt himself grow weak. He had found himself falling over that edge and had to wait a few minutes before walking in any further. The smell of his mother's perfume encompassed him in this room. It should have been comforting but instead it made him want to cry. And each time he opened a drawer to search through it, he had to steel himself for a couple of seconds before he did. This was how Sirius had found him: staring at a drawer.

'You all right mate?' Sirius said from the entrance way, looking at James with concern. It wasn't very James like behaviour to stare sadly at pieces of furniture. He began to walk into the room. 'Why are you-'

'Don't come in!' James said loudly, pointing at Sirius' feet and staring him down until he shuffled backwards and out of the perimeter of the room. He stood in the door frame.

'Sorry.' Sirius apologised before asking, 'What're you doing?'

'I'm looking for mum's will.' James said, still just looking at the drawer, 'I have to find it and Lily thought it might be in here so…'

There was an awkward moments pause, James just staring at his mother's mahogany bureau and Sirius wondering if he should say something. He decided to.

'You do realise you might have to open the drawer right?' Sirius wondered, 'Like, I think that's the only way you'll be sure-'

'Yeah I know.' James whispered. He returned to his normal volume and just looked at Sirius, complete and utter vulnerability in his eyes. He seemed on the verge of tipping over to the other side. 'It's just hard you know?' He turned back to her drawer and took a deep breath, closing his eyes and grasping both of the handles that you pulled to open it.

It was hard for Sirius to watch. It was almost as hard to watch as it was the day his mother died and he had been fumbling around in the kitchen, determined to make the woman a cup of tea. James never showed this kind of helplessness to his friends. Sirius didn't even think that, before this past week had happened, he had shown a lot of this to Lily. James was someone who built himself on confidence. He was seen as a true Gryffindor when he was at Hogwarts and even when he wasn't. Nobody saw him scared. They all saw him as brave and daring and confident and strong. It was the image he put out there because it was the image he wanted people to see. To realise that persona was absent was difficult to see, especially by his best friend. Sirius watched James open the drawer and his face drop.

'It's empty.' James spoke quietly, his voice low and on the verge of breaking. Then he suddenly let out a single laugh and shook his head, moving his hand up to rub his chin. 'Why would she have an empty drawer?'

'Do you want me to help you look?' Sirius asked, leaning against the doorframe with his shoulder, shoving his hands in his pockets as he did so. He was a little awkward. He didn't know whether he should laugh as James had, give him sympathy or just keep quiet. Sirius' pain and James' pain did not work the same way. They dealt with things completely differently and whilst James was brilliant at dealing with Sirius when he was hurting, Sirius was next to useless at dealing with James. Mostly because he had little experience in the area and whenever he had tried to talk him of a metaphorical ledge, James would convince him to stand there alongside him.

'No.' James said. 'Just leave me to it would you?' he asked, turning to Sirius and shrugging slightly. He wasn't being rude and there was no harshness or aggression in his voice. It was just a simple request. 'And if Lily comes…just tell her I've gone out.'

Sirius frowned slightly, not knowing if that was a wise idea. So far, Lily had been the only one to get James to release any sort of emotion. It was her who he was leaning on for support. Of course, he didn't know that when James had told her about the Order and about dropping out of the auror training programme, support from her was severely lacking. All he knew was that, if James was going through something grief wise then Lily ought to be there to help him lift his emotional burden. Not that he'd tell James this. 'Ok.' he said before turning away from the door and walking down the hall way away from Jane Potter's room.

He looked over the balcony that ran alongside it and saw the large doors, the front entrance to the Potter mansion, opened and closed. Lily had just come in. He didn't know why she was here but assumed it was to see James and see how he was doing. He had no clue that James had told her what the two of them had done today, turning their books in and such, and had no idea how she had reacted to it all. What he did wonder though was why she had turned up in the middle of the afternoon when he knew for a fact that her healer training programme ran till six o'clock on a Monday. He watched as she looked up at the balcony, to the opposite end from where he was, and up to the room he and James shared. She then looked to the room that she shared with James when she was over and then finally, spotted Sirius at the other end of the balcony on the first floor.

'Have you seen James?' she asked loudly so that he could hear her.

Sirius frowned in thought. He looked over to Jane Potter's room and the open door and then back to her. He sighed. He pointed to Jane's room and motioned his head to make it clear that he was telling her James was in there.

Lily nodded her head in thanks and raced up the staircase, passing Sirius at the top, and then walked down to Jane's room. She steeled herself before she stepped into the doorway. As she did, she saw James sit down on his mother's bed and run a finger round the ornate gold knob that opened the drawer in the bedside table. He noticed her as he took a deep breath in preparation of opening it and, as soon as he saw her, shook his head and rolled his eyes.

'I'm gonna kill Sirius.' he stated simply, pulling the drawer open and glancing inside. There were a lot of letters and note in the drawer. He took a pile out and put them on the bed next to him before turning, moving so that one leg was bent resting on the bed and the other hanging off, resting on the floor.

'Don't do that.' Lily said as she watched him do this. She looked around the room. Apart from the stack of letters that James had just taken out and the drawer he had left open, the room looked untouched. She presumed that, once James put back what he was searching through, it would stay that way as long as he lived there. If he had his way, he'd probably board this room up and instruct that it remain untouched. 'Can I come in?' she asked tentatively, knowing he wouldn't allow her to do so.

'No.' James said, picking up one of the letters and reading it. He felt wrong doing it, like he was invading his mother's private matters, but he also knew he had too. He could find his mother's will in this pile or he could find a letter that had a clue in it as to whereabouts it might be. He had no choice but to read them. He needed the deeds to the Potter properties to be signed over into his name as soon as possible.

'Ok.' Lily said, accepting this. She knew he wouldn't allow her into this room; he had made that perfectly clear when they were looking for the will on Saturday. He wouldn't change his mind in the space of two days, especially when he wasn't exactly too happy with her right now. She respected his wishes and stayed hovering in the door frame. However, she needed him to not be mad with her or upset with her. She needed to explain things better to him then what she had at the hospital and she knew she might have to be blunt to do so. She also needed him to tell her what his reasons for doing everything he was doing right now were, for it was the only possible way she could put her mind at ease. It was a lot to ask of him right now and he might not be in the mood to discuss it but Lily knew it was now or never. She couldn't keep bringing this topic up for he wouldn't like it. They needed to get this sorted now.

Lily took a deep breath. 'James-'

'I know what you're gonna say.' James said, cutting her off before she had even gotten a sentence out, before she had even broached the topic she wanted too. But James didn't need to hear the words to know what that was. 'You're not gonna change my mind though.' he went on, 'I don't care what crap you spout out from whatever book you've read. This is my decision. I'm joining the Order. I've quit the auror programme.' He put down the letter he had been reading, starting another pile on the bed, and picked up another.

'I'm just worried about you.' Lily stated slowly, making sure he heard every syllable.

James scoffed and lowered the letter he was looking at. He looked at her for a couple of seconds and shook his head. 'I don't know why I told you about the auror programme.' he said, 'I just wanted a bit of support from you, right, but…I should've known you wouldn't like it. You love to learn and I'm throwing away that opportunity.' he looked back down at the letter and started to scan it with his eyes as he muttered, 'Guess I didn't think that through.'

'That's what I'm worried about James!' Lily said, shifting her weight from one foot to another and putting one hand on her hip. 'I don't know if you're thinking things through properly at the minute. And if you didn't think through telling me you've stopped your education, how am I meant to believe that you've thought through joining the Order? It's dangerous.'

'You said you'd join though.' James pointed out, perhaps a little childishly, putting down the letter and looking over at her again. 'How come you can join but you're dead set against me doing it?'

'I'm not against you joining eventually.' Lily sighed, shifting around slightly in the doorway. 'Just not right now.'

'Why not?' James asked.

'Because your mum has just died James and you're clearly not handling it very well!' Lily snapped, immediately regretting her tone. She should've been patient with him and spoken as a voice of reason but the breakdown he was clearly having, noticeable to her and his friends, was setting her on edge with worry. It was hard not to get frustrated at him for not listening to her.

There was a pause before James answered. 'I'm handling it fine.' he lied. Truthfully he wasn't. He had just lost his mum for god's sake! And Lily seemed intent on pointing it out to anybody and everybody at every available opportunity. She had done earlier today to some girls in her healer training problem, not realising James had been stood right behind her. He knew she didn't have the emotional attachment to the situation he had and he understood that since he had announced he wanted to join the Order of the Phoenix her thoughts were probably more concerned with the danger he had planned to put himself in instead of the recent event of his mother passing. He did realise that dealing with him this past week alone must have taken its toll on her, but to hear it phrased so bluntly was rather hard to take.

'Oh really?' Lily questioned a bit sarcastically, 'Because I seem to remember you denying it at first, drinking yourself stupid for a week and then, straight after the funeral signing up for a resistance group where your life is in danger!'

'It's only been a week.' James muttered, looking back to the letters on the bed. He didn't exactly want her to focus on his process of grief over the last week. That wasn't the issue to him. He picked up a few one by one and put them straight down, recognising the handwriting to be his uncles. His uncle had died long before his mother. There would be nothing about her will in them.

'Exactly!' Lily said, her tone becoming softer to match his. She closed her eyes and forces out the next fact, something she had said earlier. 'You're not supposed to make big life altering decisions after a loss.'

'Ha!' James laughed once half-heartedly, ignoring her memorised statement and laughing incredulously at her hypocriticalness. 'You are!' he pointed out, not looking at her still.

'Yes but I'm not the one who just lost the only living relative they had.'

Again, there was a pause. James closed his eyes and let his hands drop. He took a deep breath. 'Can you stop pointing it out please?' James begged her.

Lily lips disappeared in a grimace of sorts as she collected herself. 'I'm sorry.' she whispered, 'I just want you to think about it for a moment. To be clear on why you want to do this because if it's just a reckless decision based on...recent events and you don't really want to do it…'

'I do.' James stated assertively, picking up the final letter that he had laid down on the bed. It was again, a letter from his uncle to his mother. There was no will in her room.

'And quitting the auror programme?' she questioned with raised eyebrows.

'I need to commit to it.' James said as if it were obvious, finally looking over at her again. He gathered the letters together again into a pile. He was placing them in the drawer next to the bed and closing that drawer as Lily continued to speak and question what he was doing.

'But why?' Lily asked getting steadily more wound up by it all. She didn't understand why it was so pressing. 'Why do you have to do this now? What reasons do you have to do this at this moment in time without taking just a few weeks to think it over and-

'I'm doing it to protect the ones I love!' he said, suddenly loudly turning around to face her and throwing his arm out to the side in gesture to emphasise his statement.

Lily said nothing and just waited for him to continue.

'Now that mum's gone, so are most of the enchantments that are used to protect this place.' he explained. 'And no spell me, you or Remus could cast is gonna be strong enough to keep out you-know-who and his followers. We are sitting ducks. We are targets. And joining this group is the best possible chance we have of avoiding them coming here and attacking us.'

James walked towards Lily and moved her gently out of the doorframe of his mums room by the elbow of the arm that jutted out as she had her hand on her hip. He closed the door, taking one last sparing look at the room, pulling it too by the handle. He stayed there, holding the handle and facing the door as he spoke his next words to Lily.

'When you join the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore told me, he protects the houses of the members who own them, whose names are on the deeds.' he continued to explain to Lily. 'And anything that he puts on this place is gonna be one hundred times more effective than anything my parents did. We would be safe.' he turned his head to look at her, 'You would be safe. At least when we're here.'

'But we'd also be in constant danger when we weren't here.' Lily spoke quietly, taking on the subtext that they would both have joined the Order so that she could ask her questions. 'And you can't just expect us to hole up in here all the time.'

'No I don't expect us to hole up here Lily.' James sighed in exasperation, 'That's not the point.' He released his grip on the handle to his mum's room and turned to face Lily. 'The point is getting rid of the element of surprise. They can't attack us here which is great but when we're out there, because we've joined the Order,' (James took on the same subtext Lily had) 'we'll know what's going on in this war we'll be on alert. We'll be quicker to defend and have wands at the ready at all times instead of luring ourselves into a false sense of security. We'll be ready. Always ready and that's better than walking down Diagon Alley, fumbling for your wand and getting caught in the cross fire. It just makes more sense to be aware of everything then guessing and relying on the Ministry or Daily Prophet for information which, for all we know, could be wrong!'

'What makes you think we're targets? Lily asked.

'C'mon Lils.' James said with a breathless unbelieving laugh. He tilted his head and rubbed his chin with his hand once before continuing. 'How could we not be? You know who we are and I know you're smart enough to realise who will have joined the death eaters the minute they got out of Hogwarts.'

Lily stayed silent but gave him a questioning look.

'Snape.' James pointed out simply.

Lily began to shake her head. 'You don't know that he actually-'

'Oh come on Lily be serious for a moment!' James rolled his eyes. 'Of course he bloody joined them! Of course he did! I know it and you know it and, guess what that means? He hates me Lily. I'm a blood traitor. I'm definitely a target. Same with Pete, and same with Sirius. And he has more death eater relatives than a dog has hair. Remus is a werewolf! They've already tried to get him once. They'll try again and if they don't, they'll kill him. And you.' He paused and looked at her with a mixed expression, one of pain and fact at what he was saying. 'You're a target. Snape may have been your best friend at some point but it doesn't mean that he's gonna give you the courtesy of leaving you alone. To them, you're a mudblood.'. James' uttered his last words with distaste, hating having to say it.

Lily knew what he said was true but still, she had _never_ heard him use that word before. She knew it wasn't what he thought and he wasn't actually calling her that himself. But it still stung. She had a clear look of betrayal on her face and James picked up on it.

'I don't think you are.' he clarified, 'But they do. They know you're muggle-born and they want to kill every one of your blood status. They won't stop at you. And I won't-can't let that happen. Nothing is going to happen to you whilst I'm around and if joining the Order of the Phoenix will give us some forewarning and protection, then you best be damn sure I'm gonna do it. Okay?'

He left no room for her to disagree with him. The reasons he had given were rational. Having extra protection on the mansion would help. Knowing what was really happening would give them an edge. And admitting that they were target of Voldemort's or would be someday in the near future was a fact that they would have to accept. Being a part of a group that helped people out and defended and saved the lives of the innocent and of those blood-traitors and muggle-born's like them, well, that was definitely a good way to stay one step ahead of the game.

'I'm doing this.' James assured her, folding his arms across his chest, 'I want to help protect the people out there who are like us. I want to fight because it's the right thing to do and you can't tell me it's not. I will make my parents proud that I am their son, whether they're here or not and the fact that my mum died a week ago doesn't change that or influence it. I would want to do this no matter what and you know it.'

And with that, he walked past her and down the hallway, leaving her to stew in his words which, she knew all too well, were nothing but true.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**The next update will be on the 26th of July :) Review if you want to!**

**Galindaba**


	18. Chapter 17

**Hey everyone!**** :D**

**I'm a day late on the update so sorry about that. However, I'm giving you TWO chapters today so I hope that makes up for it! :)**

**Thank you to those who have reviewed!**

**Clozza: Wow I can't believe you're reading Five Minutes again! :) You don't know how happy that makes me! (To tell you the truth I sometimes re-read certain bits of it when I have writers block :p ) And sorry I distracted you from an assignment! :/ Hope I can do that again ;)_  
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**dance4ever95:**** Thanks so so much for your review! It really means a lot that you think this is raw cause that's what I was aiming for! :D I love writing those bits! I tried to look up the poem 'The Truth About Forever' but I can't find it and now I want to read it! Do you know the author at all? :)**

**DogO: Hello! :) Yes I have planned out chapters but, as it stands, I'm not sure how many there will be. I can promise a lot though cause I don't do things by half! :p So far I've planned to chapter forty-five which seems a long way off at the minute but it'll come all too quickly! :p I think this FF may be as long, maybe a few chapters shorter, than Five Minutes. I hope that's good news! :)**

**Ok. So Order things! :D The introduction of the Order was interesting to write cause I want them to be full characters and not just assets...Anyway, I wanted different relationships and stuff and partners and then I got excited and I walked into a door and gave myself a nosebleed. :/ I hope it's all worth it! :)**

**Here's Chapter Seventeen! I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen**

A couple days later, when Peter had finally moved into the Potter mansion for good, taking up the room that was three doors down from the one that Sirius and James shared and two doors down from the room Remus had claimed and just a short walk away from the bedroom down the corridor that James and Lily usually slept in when she was over, all five of them had joined the Order of the Phoenix. James had asked them all individually, confirming their answers, (leaving Lily until the very last minute), before apparating to Hogsmeade, sneaking into Hogwarts and making his way to Dumbledore's office. He had wished he had the map with him to see if his old headmaster was actually in his office. That would have saved the hour and a half he had had to wait for him, leaning against the walls of his alma mater, next to the giant gargoyle statue that served as the entrance to Dumbledore's office. When Dumbledore did arrive, the conversation was a brief two minute affair. James confirmed his and his friends desire to join the war resistance, Dumbledore nodded and had then said he would need the deed with James' name on it to place the enchantment on the mansion, and he had the finally questioned how James got into the school. But to that, James just smiled mysteriously in response. Then James had left to go back to the mansion and inform the others that they were officially members of the Order of the Phoenix.

They didn't really know what to do with the information. Remus and Lily had just given solemn nods, Sirius had sort of punched a fist half-heartedly in the air in triumph, James had looked around at every one else's reaction but rested his eyes on Lily, and Peter had just stood there awkwardly. They then went on about their own business. Remus and Sirius went out to the outhouse where Sirius stored his motorbike to see if Remus could figure out a way to get the thing to fly. Lily had gone home to study for her healer training programme. And Peter and James had gone to sort Peter's new room out. James was going to give him the rules of the house that his mum made them adhere to but quickly realised that there was no need. Still, he helped Peter unpack his stuff.

For that day, the first day of a major change in their lives, it felt no different. James didn't know what he had expected really, how he had expected to feel. He had wanted to be filled with a sense of new-found purpose but found that it was missing. He assumed that it would kick in when he actually started to do things for the Order. When he had told Peter this, Peter had just agreed with him as he usually did. However, wisely, he did give compare it to a new job: that it didn't feel like you had one until you started, and it didn't feel as if you had been working until you got paid for the first time. James had said it was a fair assessment and just shrugged saying that would probably feel far more real when they had found themselves in a real duel with death eaters or when they were given their first protection detail. When they were sure they were making a difference, James said that it was only then that they would feel as though they were members. But, nevertheless, it was when a chance in the form of an invitation came along that James had started to feel welcome.

He had received an invitation from Marlene McKinnon, asking whether he, Lily, Sirius, Remus and Peter would be interested in heading over to her house the next day to get to know some other people in the group in an informal setting. Marlene had said that it would most likely be the younger members that were there but she had invited everyone, including Dumbledore. If the older members of the Order came or not would be a different matter, but she had expressed her wish that they come along in her letter. James had told Peter, Sirius and Remus about it first and had then written to Lily to ask her if she'd come too. They were all up for it and so, when the first Friday of November came along, they all met at the mansion and apparated over to Marlene McKinnon's house in Kent.

She greeted them at the door and led them all into her living room where a few other people were already talking, drinking, eating and laughing. Marlene introduced them to the room at large whilst they glanced around, soaking in what her home looked like. She had a lovely little two bedroom that was house situated in the middle of a terrace. Her living room, which you entered via the front door, was rather spacious but probably charmed to seem bigger than it was. There was a comfortable three seated sofa and a couple of arm chairs gathered around a fire place which stuck out on a chimney breast. In the alcoves either side of the fireplace were two enormous bookcases. Opposite this wall was the staircase that led to what was presumably the second floor of the house. That meant the bedrooms and the bathroom was up there. The rooms upstairs, the living room they were stood in and the kitchen which was in the adjoining room, were the only rooms in the house. It was quaint but there was a huge comparison in size to James' residence. Still, he found he rather preferred it. He was away from memories here.

The group started as a whole at first, all talking in the middle of the room. They were being informed by various people, mainly the ones who seemed quite a bit older than them, about what the Order had been doing so far. They told them of attacks and disappearances that the marauders and Lily hadn't even known had happened and confirmed their theories that because they hadn't heard any bad news in the paper recently, that Voldemort was planning something big. They didn't release any details about it though under orders from Dumbledore. He was the one who was supposed to tell them what was happening as he was the only one who genuinely knew all the facts and wouldn't mutate them for dramatic effect or brush them off as small inconveniences. So it wasn't long before this conversation was worn out and the whole group split off into smaller groups to discuss regular things. To, as the meaning of the party was clear, get to know one another.

James and Lily ended up having an interesting conversation with a woman named Dorcas Meadowes. She was the sweetest little thing. A short, slightly plump, middle-aged woman, around forty-five years of age, with short black hair and shining blue eyes. They started speaking to her when she offered them a sweet, some ice-mice, something which, according to Sturgis Podmore who had taken to walk by them and take some sweets at every opportunity he had, she carried with her all the time. The last time he walked by he joined them in conversation and revealed to Lily and James that the sweet little lady they were talking to, the woman wearing mismatched clothing with patterned patches, the one who seemed nervous and as if butter would melt in her mouth, was a brutal warrior who had never lost a duel. Dorcas had become a little shy and embarrassed at this and tried to move the conversation along by talking about her house in Cornwall but Sturgis kept on bringing it back to times when he and Dorcas had been out on assignment and she had knocked out twelve Death Eaters all at once. James and Lily were in slight awe.

Peter, who was speaking to Sturgis Podmore at first but was passed over for the opportunity of a free sampling of ice mice, ended up in a conversation with Elphias Doge who, as it turned out, was Dumbledore's oldest friend. He liked to also think of himself as his most trusted friend too but admitted that being friends with such a brilliant man was hard at time. Peter agreed, glancing around at all his confident friends talking away to other Order members and saying that he knew the feeling. Elphias then went on, at Peters inquiring, to tell him about the losses the Order had received, obviously picking up on the fact that Peter wanted to know exactly what he had gotten himself in to, what were the risks. He told him gently that there had only been two losses of Order members thus far, Caradoc and Dadalus Dearborn, but that they took every precaution necessary to prevent death, capture or torture but, every once in a while, of course they did all take the occasional painful curse. Some had been grievously injured, Alastor Moody losing his leg and having to replace it with a prosthetic one and Fabian Prewett lost two of his fingers one time but nothing worse than that. Not physically anyway. Peter stood there feeling slightly sick in himself. He was already at a disadvantage what with being skilled at defence against the dark arts but not to the level of James or Remus. He suddenly became very pale and, noticing this, Elphias took him into the kitchen to get him a glass of water. This was where they found Sirius.

Sirius hadn't opened up a conversation with anyone. Instead, feeling incredibly hungry, he had edged his way into the kitchen when the group broke off after the general introduction to find the nibbles that Marlene had mentioned she had put out. When they walked into the kitchen, he was in the middle of a huge mouthful of a pork pie, the tray of which he had almost entirely consumed. Peter was a bit too pale to take much notice, thinking that he was bound to die thanks to the Order. He only just made it to a chair before passing out. Elphias helped him over to the chair but, upon seeing he had closed his eyes, struck up a conversation with Sirius about food, telling him that, when he was his age, (a long time ago judging by his silvery hair and crinkled grey blue eyes), food was the be all and end all to him as well. He managed to get in the fact that he had started having such a love for food after he had contracted and overcome dragon pox as a child and that Sturgis Podmore, the young lad in the living room talking to James, Lily and Dorcas, also shared Sirius' need for food. He then breathed in a small sigh saying that he didn't seem to have that love for food anymore, rarely feeling hungry now due to his age, before Sirius had swallowed. Sirius did look aghast at the idea that he too could lose interest in his food as he got older but decided not to dwell too much on it and instead ask what was up with Peter. When Elphias told him that he had just been describing the injuries and deaths of Order members, he did seem rather concerned that it had affected Peter this way but, upon hearing that Fabian Prewett was missing two fingers, he politely excused himself from the conversation, and the kitchen, and walked quickly back into the living room to go see this spectacle. He passed Remus near the bookshelf as he went.

Remus had been speaking to Marlene McKinnon who was just about three or four years older than him but, when she discovered that one of the party members, Mundungus Fletcher, seemed to have disappeared, she had to tell Remus she would speak to him later as she had to go ensure that Dung wasn't routing through her bedrooms or attic looking for treasures. Remus had laughed politely thinking it a small joke but, upon seeing that Marlene was serious, stopped. Apparently, Dung was often doing things like this, looking for things of value to steal, as he was a black market tradesman. According to Marlene, he made for an excellent informant, able to listen to conversations that known death eaters were having down Knockturn Alley where he usually set up his stall, but was a terrible house guest. Last month alone, when they had all met at Alastor Moody's house, he had tried stealing an ornate bronze cane that had belonged to Moody's grandfather. Moody had proceeded to chase him around and beat him with it for ten minutes before they could get back to business. He was also banned from the Hogs Head but Marlene didn't elude as to why as she saw Dungs head pop around the staircase to see if people were still occupied. She had then shook her head and ran up the stairs after him, surprisingly light on her feet in her steel toed boots. When she left, Remus turned to the floor to ceiling bookcase that was nestled in the alcove next to the fireplace. He was alone for no more than two minutes when company came.

'She has a lot of books.' a voice came from next to Remus.

Remus turned to look next to him and noticed a youngish looking lad, most likely in his mid-twenties, stood next to him. He had wavy dirty blonde shoulder length hair and stubble on his chin. He was squinting up at the large bookcase with his arms folded. He shook his head slightly at the sight in front of him, partly from what it was and partly for not being able to see it properly.

'Well between you and me not many of them are worth reading.' Remus muttered the trace of a grin around his lips, 'Most of them seem to be on History of Magic.'

'Ha.' the lad laughed once, nodding his head, 'Never been a duller subject.' He turned and faced Remus fully, holding a hand out for him to shake. 'I'm Benjy Fenwick.' he said with a roguish smile, his seaweed green eyes crinkling in the corners.

'Remus Lupin.' Remus said, offering Benjy the same courtesy. When he shook his hand though, Remus noticed that some sort of realisation had hit Benjy's face.

'You're the werewolf right.' he asked, still shaking his hand but pointing a finger at him at the same time.

Remus grimaced and let go of the hand shake, shoving his hands uncomfortably in the pockets of his light brown trousers, ones that James had bought him to replace the deep brown corduroy ones that had, apparently, spontaneously combust. He pulled at the fresh lining of the pockets, his shoulders clearly deflating and his eye level dropping. He was used to this. And just because he was now part of a group that aimed to fight Voldemort and take him down, eradicating the prejudice towards muggle-born's and half-bloods, didn't mean that they were accepting of him. He had hoped perhaps they would be, but his expectations were still low. He assumed it was Dumbledore who had told them, thinking that as they were under his leadership they wouldn't view Remus as the rest of the wizarding world did. But that great man had been wrong on occasion.

'Yeah…' Remus said eventually with a solemn nod. He had been there, at this small gathering for less than an hour and it was already going down the drain. But he wouldn't be able to leave yet. He had to stay for at least another couple of hours to be polite so that also meant that, as Dumbledore must have told them his condition, he had to spend at least a couple of hours in a room full of people who despised him. That was sure to be a treat. He wished that Lily had been looking at this bookcase with him or he wished that Sirius and James, who, at a glance at them, now both seemed to be speaking to two identical people, were talking to Benjy too, ready to say that Remus didn't have to stand and take the readymade judgements that would be forced his way and that he could leave if he wanted too. But, as it turned out, he didn't really have too.

'Man that is awesome!' Benjy grinned, nodding his head enthusiastically.

'What?' Remus said, confused. He wasn't being judged. And sadly, from the majority, it wasn't something his was used too; being accepted.

'You have no idea how many times I wished I was a werewolf when I was younger!' Benjy went on to say with a distant wishing sigh, 'I used to pretend my dad was a werewolf sometimes you know. Great way to stop kids picking on you, telling them that.'

'Can't say I've ever tried…' Remus replied cautiously. He wasn't sure if what Benjy was saying was sarcastic and some sort of sick joke or if he genuinely thought Remus to be, for lack of a better word…cool.

'Oh yeah! Scared the shit out of them.' Benjy said, his eyes glittering and a boyish laugh escaping his lips.

Remus frowned a little. 'I can imagine.' he said, confused in this conversation. The only similar thing that had ever happened to him was when James had 'investigated' why Remus was strangely absent during the first couple months they were at Hogwarts, why he was always avoiding them, and upon working it all out had just told Remus bluntly that he really didn't care. He had said that he didn't mind he was a werewolf and didn't mind being yelled at once in a while if that's how Remus was feeling near a full moon, and just asked that they pull a prank and be friends. If he wanted to be friends with someone, he would be and Remus' 'furry little problem' wasn't going to stop him. It was a sentiment shared by all the marauder but Remus knew that he was very fortunate to have found people like this who were so accepting, especially as they were only eleven at the time. He had come to terms with the fact that it probably wouldn't happen again. After all, to him, finding James, Sirius and Peter was like winning the lottery and how many times does that happen to a person. Most the time, not even once. But here was Benjy with a grin and a good disposition, looking upon Remus as if he was the coolest thing known to man. It wasn't something Remus was used too.

'Seriously though,' Benjy said, clapping Remus on the shoulder as if he had known him forever, 'I used to turn to people, anyone who was being a dick to me, look them in the eye and say slowly,' he cleared his throat and imitated a slightly younger version of himself, ''you'd better stop pal. My dad's a werewolf and I'm not above asking him to eat you'.' Benjy then paused and subsequently roared with laughter at his own words, patting Remus on the shoulder twice, not noticing his complete shock. All he knew was that after a couple of seconds, Remus was laughing too.

After a couple of hours at being at the party, a couple of the guests had to leave. Mundungus Fletcher reappeared in the living room at this time and announced that he 'unfortunately' had to go. It was only really Remus who, upon looking for Marlene, (who had disappeared up the stairs a good couple hours ago), presumed that it was not particularly Dung's own decision that he leave. Nevertheless, people jovially wished him a goodbye and he disapparated out of the room to go god knows where. Unlike most of the other Order members, he didn't have a permanent home address. Not ten minutes later Fabian and Gideon Prewett, who were identical twins with mullet styled red hair, masses of freckles and matching brown eyes announced that they had to go and see their younger sister Molly Weasely and their nephews to join them for desert. It was apparently a law to them, that they could not miss Molly's peach cobbler. With grinning waves to the party and a goodbye to James and Sirius who they had spent the majority of the gathering speaking too, they left disapparating on the spot and creating two loud simultaneous cracks. After they left James went to join Remus in speaking to Benjy Fenwick, being complimented straight away by Benjy on how well he could pull of his glasses which of course expanded his ego tremendously causing Remus to shake his head. Sirius however, left the living room to go upstairs in search of the bathroom.

He found it in an instance and relieved himself, washed his hands and then walked out of the room, all ready to go back downstairs and join the party, perhaps see if, after two hours, whether Peter was still passed out in the kitchen. For all he knew he could be. He hadn't seen him since. But as he was making his way down the hallway, a slightly open door caught his eye. And Sirius was nosey. So he looked around him quickly in case someone was staring at him disapprovingly, (which no one was), before he pushed open the door gently. The sight that fell before him was, in a word, breath-taking.

The room was choc-a-block, filled to the brim with pile and piles and boxes and boxes of brand new Zonko's products. Sirius' eyes widened. Zonko's products. He walked further into the room at some speed and started to inspect some of the boxes with child-like wide eyes picking up some of the product in the opened boxes. Looking around he noticed that some of the names on the sides of the other unopened boxes he knew, and some he didn't recognise. This meant one of two things; these were either not Zonko's product, or they were _brand new _Zonko's products. If he hadn't been so excited about this prospect, he'd have gone down to the living room to fetch James, knowing his eyes would also light up with exhilaration. Instead, he took out the magical penknife he carried with him, one that also happened to be a handy little device that could open any lock, even if _alohamora _didn't work, and released the blade from the handle. He was about to cut into one of the boxes when he was stopped by a voice behind him.

'Can I help you?'

Sirius froze and turned around to see Marlene McKinnon looking at him with raised eyebrows and the makings of a smile on her face. She had her arms folded over her deep purple layered mesh top and was trying her hardest not to laugh at Sirius' 'deer caught in the headlights' expression.

Sirius nodded his head slowly and stood himself up looking around the room for an excuse. 'Yes…' he said in answer to Marlene's question, speaking as slowly as he was nodding his head, 'Is this…the…bathroom?'

Marlene let her smile dance upon her face now. She laughed at Sirius and shook her head, putting her hands on her hips. She went to speak but laughed again instead, infectiously.

Sirius laughed along with her before sighing and saying, 'Yeah. I could have done better.'

'You think?' Marlene said. She walked further into the room, her boots making heavy foot falls for such a slight girl, creaking the one of the floorboards as she came in. She picked up a dung bomb from one of the open boxes that Sirius had already rifled through and moved it slightly. Sirius watched her do it and smirked.

'Cool boots.' he commented, motioning with his head down to her feet. He watched for a couple of seconds, mesmerised by the girls feet which were hidden by steel-toed boots with spider webs on them, the spiders moving around delicately from one painted string to another.

'Thanks. I get that a lot.' Marlene said with a nod, pursing her mauve-purple lips, 'But they are awesome so is to be expected. I never take them off.'

'Seriously?' he asked with a disbelieving frown at the boots, 'They stuck to your feet or…'

'Yeah they're stuck to my feet.' Marlene answered in a clear sarcastic voice. She put the dung bomb she had picked up previously, back into the box and randomly decided to count how many there were visible from just looking.

Sirius laughed once before looking into the box she was still fiddling about with. He watched her fingers run over the round dung bombs, tapping them with her nails every so often. 'You like Zonko's then?' he asked her, still watching her fingers.

Marlene laughed once, her smile had not faltered since she entered the room. 'No.' she replied honestly, 'My boyfriend works there and, sometimes if there's an overfill of stock, he stores bits here. Load of crap if you ask me.'

'Ahh.' Sirius sighed, moving a hand to his heart dramatically, 'You wound me.'

'I said nothing about you.' Marlene said with a small shake of her head, her eyes narrowing slightly.

'Yeah but you called all of this…treasure, crap.' Sirius shrugged, walking a little bit towards her and stopping at the box she was stood in front of.

'Oh believe me,' Marlene said, 'you'd think it was crap too if it was clogging up your spare room on a weekly basis.'

'No I wouldn't.' Sirius said straight away. 'Besides, half of my room is jam-packed with Zonko's stuff. The other half is just jam though...' He picked up one of the dung bombs and brought it to his nose, inhaling the smell and sighing contently afterwards. He looked up at Marlene and grinned. 'Ahh! That new dung bomb smell.'

Marlene laughed and took the dung bomb off of him, smelling it herself. 'It smells like the crapper.' she stated, before chucking it haphazardly back in the box. She started to turn around and walk out of the room speaking over her shoulder to Sirius. 'You can take a few of them if you'd like.'

'Really?' Sirius said, turning his attention from her to the box of dung bombs that she had just moved away from. His eyes lit up at the prospect of free stuff. It didn't matter that he could afford it all in actuality, if it was free it was better.

'Sure.' Marlene shrugged, 'They are actually really useful when creating diversions for death eaters.

Sirius looked at her as if she'd just made a scientific discovery. He'd never thought of that. These somewhat meaningless joke items created for children to annoy each other with at school and to frustrate their parents with at home, could be used for the actual good of the world. If anyone, (and now James' mum was gone he didn't know who this would be), decided to tell him otherwise, he now had a genuine reason as to why they contributed to society.

He picked up a few and stuffed them in his pockets, grabbing a few extra for James, then walking towards the door, past Marlene with a wide grin, and exiting the room. She locked the door behind them and they began to descend the stairs together, Sirius just a fraction behind Marlene.

'So why were you upstairs?' he asked her as they made their way from the second floor to the fourth floor.

'Oh Dung found some of my grandma's jewellery and wanted to know if I'd give it to him to sell. Apparently it was 'valuable'.' she replied, a roll of her eyes clearly going along with that statement even though Sirius couldn't be sure if that was what she was actually doing.

'Was it valuable?' he asked her, jumping the last two steps on the staircase to land effortlessly next to her with a showing off smile.

Marlene's wicked mischievous grin grew. 'Oh yeah. He took some to sell.' she said, 'I gave him a nice price for it too. What he _fails_ to realise is that you can't con a con-man. I charmed all of her jewellery to return to its box every night.'

Sirius raised his eyebrows at her. Had she really just made Mundungus fork out for a load of jewellery that would, at the end of the night, disappear from him and return to her?

He watched, kind of impressed, as Marlene shrugged sweetly before walking back to the party of people who were still there and a couple new comers in the forms of his old professors. She bypassed them with a smile though and instead joined Dorcas Meadowes, Elphias Doge and Peter, (who had finally come out of the kitchen in the time Sirius had been upstairs), instantly striking up a conversation with them. Sirius stared after her in slight shock and amazement that she had been able to con a con man. Eventually, he shook his head though to shake away his thoughts and went to join James and Remus in talking to Benjy Fenwick and Sturgis Podmore in the corner near one of the bookcases. On his way over to them, he noticed Lily in the corner, staring up at the other bookcase in the alcove the other side. She seemed entranced by the books there and, rather than going to disturb her as he momentarily thought he should, carried on with his original plan to join his friends. He didn't feel guilty though for, moments later, he noticed someone else approach her and start a conversation.

'Miss Evans, you look troubled.'

Lily looked to the side of her and saw the tall form of Dumbledore smiling serenely at her. She smiled, more grimaced, back at him and turned back to the bookcase she had been looking at. She was scouring the shelves for something she may have read or something she would like make a note to buy and read. There was nothing though. There only seemed to be books focusing on the history of magic upon this bookshelf. She sighed and answered Dumbledore. 'Mmm.' was all she could manage though.

She glanced over at James who was laughing with Sturgis Podmore and Benjy Fenwick, Remus and Sirius nodding their heads emphatically. They had probably just told a story of one of their pranks, things which James never failed to find funny even now, even though he had instigated them and carried them out. His own antics were hilarious to him and always would be. Still, it was good for her to see him laugh. It had been almost two weeks since she'd seen his smile. She just ached that she hadn't been the one to cause it but rather the one who had probably squashed attempts of it returning sooner. After all, she was the single naysayer on James' decision to join the Order _and_ on his decision to quit the auror programme. She wasn't exactly the one trying to boost his moral.

'Mr Potter seems in good spirits today.' Dumbledore mentioned, noticing that she was looking at him, perhaps a little wistfully.

'Yeah.' Lily sighed. She frowned to herself. Perhaps this would be her only opportunity to give herself piece of mind and ensure that James didn't throw himself into anything too soon. She looked at Dumbledore in thought, deciding whether or not to go for it. In the end though, she didn't need to decide as Dumbledore prompted her, leaving the door open for her to ask her questions and make her requests. If she was a big believer in fate, then this would have been what people called providence.

'Why did you ask James to join the Order?' she asked him, her eyes pleading and searching for an honest answer, 'I mean, you _knew _he'd just lost his mum and you ask him something like _this_? Why?'

'Ah. I do realise that the timing was not what you would consider ideal,' Dumbledore began, almost hanging his head but not quite, 'but I did not know when I would have another opportunity. After all, having someone with Mr Potters particular skill set is a great asset to the Order, not to mention your own.'

Lily looked at him a little bit bewildered. 'We're not assets.' she stated, 'We're people. And you're right the timing wasn't '_ideal'_.'

'I sense you are a little angry at me for making this offer to him.' Dumbledore deduced.

Lily's lips disappeared as she shook her head. 'I just think that if you wanted him to join, us to join, that badly then you could have waited at least a couple of weeks. I know that we're in a war but…shouldn't you make sure that the people who are fighting for you are in the right mind set?' she questioned him.

Dumbledore looked thoughtfully at her. 'You speak beyond your years Miss Evans.' Dumbledore complimented, 'But let me put your mind at ease. In making the offer to Mr Potter, I did not intend to send him, yourself or those closest to you, into the thick of this war the next day. I will allow you all time to grieve. That was always my plan.'

Lily breathed in a deep breath, relieved that she had been told James wouldn't be facing anything any time soon, for that was her main priority. She was pleased the other marauders were also being given the same pardon, if not for themselves but for James' sake. She knew if Sirius had been sent to do something and he hadn't, James would not be happy. Dumbledore giving them this rest bit would allow them all more time to grieve before having to focus their minds on other things. But still, it didn't mean that she wasn't a tiny bit annoyed that Dumbledore had done what he did in the first place. With all his brilliance, he had prayed on the mind of a grieving teenage boy and she wasn't sure if she was ok with that. It was almost as if some of the respect she had had for him, the reverence that she along with many others held Dumbledore in, had waned.

'Thank you.' she said a bit begrudgingly as she turned back to the bookcase. She didn't know why she had turned back to peruse the shelves which she had looked over thoroughly now. Maybe it was simply because she didn't want to speak to her old headmaster anymore and didn't want to be seen by James to have walked away from him. James knew her. He knew that she would say something given the opportunity and she didn't want to think that he would be mad or upset at her when he was for all intents and purposes happy at the moment. So she looked at the shelves some more and waited for Elphias Doge to beckon Dumbledore over and away from her. She didn't have to wait long.

In actual fact, she kind of wanted to leave. Lily was the opposite of James in situations like this. James loved parties and revelled in the attention it usually gave him. His birthday bashes at Hogwarts had been ones to be rivalled. The marauders had always pulled something extraordinary together. They didn't do it for Remus or Peter or Sirius but for James, a mega party was something of a must. At Hogwarts, Lily had also always had a birthday party, though when it came to extravagance, they were nowhere near as over the top as James' were. Anyway, she hadn't ever particularly wanted the parties she was thrown, only putting up with them because her best friend at the time, Hestia Jones, just loved to plan them. She went along with them for her because they had made her happy. The only one she had really enjoyed was her eighteenth birthday party when James had changed everything for her and turned the party into a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory theme and had spiked the chocolate with some sort of potion, turning everyone orange with green hair. That was her favourite one but still, she would take a sit down dinner or a movie with her friends or just hanging out in general over a party any day. Nothing had changed really. She still did not particularly have the affliction for parties and now, after a few hours, she wanted to leave. What she didn't know was that the party was about to get interesting. Unfortunately, this was not in a good way.

A huge crack rang through the living room and, appearing before them, was none other than the celebrated auror Alastor Moody. The members of the Order of the Phoenix that had joined before the marauders and Lily, looked startled and confused at his presence, knowing his loathing for large social gatherings. He had made some excuse as to why he could not attend tonight and so, nobody had expected to see him. Lily had immediately looked over to James when Alastor Moody entered the room, knowing that his face would be a sight to see, and it was. Both he and Sirius' eyes had lit up upon seeing him in person and they had exchanged excited grins. Remus didn't look as thrilled and Lily knew it was because he felt as if he wasn't allowed to admire an auror as he would never get to be one himself. What he was forgetting now though, was that neither would James or Sirius. Peter had looked rather frightened when Moody had appeared and had shuffled closer to James, glancing at Moody's leg every so often though Lily wasn't clear as to why yet as she hadn't been told about his injury. And now wasn't the time to be relaying that information anyway. There were far more pressing concerns that Moody had brought with him.

'Alastor?' Dumbledore questioned, stepping forwards with a serene but commanding look. Everyone in the room hushed down as Dumbledore had spoken in a somewhat grave tone.

'Ava Marsket and her boy Malakai, they've been killed by Voldemort.' Moody said gruffly.

All but the marauders and Lily either sighed or tutted or exchanged grievous glances, obviously knowing who these people were and why they had been targeted by Voldemort. Dumbledore gave a solemn single nod, glancing around at his affiliates, his eyes resting for a second on each of them. He did this to all but Lily and the marauders who seemed to be left out of the loop, not knowing who the Marsket's were or why Voldemort had targeted them. Moody continued.

'That's not all.' he said, limping up to Dumbledore. He stopped a couple feet in front of him and lowered his voice, 'The Minister is dead.'

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**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	19. Chapter 18

**Hey everyone!**** :D**

**I got a review a while back from Zulnaharia Cullen about James and Lily spending a bit of time together and I wanted to write a bit of that now cause it's been a while with everything that's gone on with them. I want to show them starting to get back to normal so I hope this is it!**

**So Chapter Eighteen! Hope you enjoy it!**

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**Chapter Eighteen**

It had been five weeks and two days since Jane Potter had died. The remaining household of the Potter mansion, along with Lily, had successfully joined the Order of the Phoenix despite James and Lily's problems about the whole situation to begin with. But they had dealt with it. James had explained his reasons for wanting to join and had sort of convinced Lily that, even if his mum hadn't have just died, he would have done it anyway. She knew it was somewhat true and, even though it went against her better judgement, her worry of James making big decisions too quickly always weighing on her mind, she had decided to keep her opinions to herself from now on. After all, once James had decided to do something, nobody, not even she, could change his mind. Besides, she had already spoken to Dumbledore about it all and he had promised that he was not planning to ask James or her or any of the other marauders to do anything for him just yet. She wasn't sure if he would still stick to this considering recent events but, thus far, he had kept his word.

Since their meet and greet with the Order at Marlene McKinnon's house, Dumbledore hadn't called on them. It had been radio silent for a while now despite the big reveal that Moody had given them at the end of the party that Marlene had held; that Ava Marsket and her infant son Malakai had been killed by Voldemort himself and, in denying to cover it up and give into blackmail, so had the Minister of Magic. Since then, a new Minister of Magic by the name of Cornelius Fudge was assigned by the Wizengamot after Dumbledore had once again turned down the position. However, with the state of chaos in the wizarding world that the death of the old Minister of Magic had brought about, he had made a public statement to say that he would do anything he could to assist the new Minister of Magic in his new position. So Lily and the marauders assumed that he had told him of Voldemorts suspected plans to infiltrate, not only the Ministry of Magic but the muggle political system by any means imaginable; his plans to assume power in every which way possible across the United Kingdom in order to eradicate anyone who was not a pure-blood wizard.

They assumed he had told the Minister that, when the time came in the upcoming year, any candidates for a new muggle Prime Minister would be at risk. And they assumed that Dumbledore would have also told Fudge that the Marsket family was now being targeted because of the obscure link their family had with the muggle Prime Minister. Though they had not been told themselves that this was what had happened, their assumptions that it had were not unfounded. Because of her friendship with Alice and Frank, Lily had come to discover that a select few in the auror department had been assigned to protect the Marskets around the clock. It was through Alice that Lily also came to uncover the fact that the Ministry, though doing everything in their power to protect the father of the family, Leighton Marsket, and his youngest daughter, Katrianna Marsket, (who was to turn eleven the following year), they had left the real target, Dianna Marsket, uncovered most of the time, being unable to track her thanks to her lack of a magical footprint. It was sloppy work really but, unless Dumbledore called on them to help rectify it, they could do nothing to change this fact. They hoped but didn't know if the Order had been given this detail by Dumbledore and, unless they were assigned it themselves, they wouldn't know. They would not know if the Marsket's were safe, if any political candidates needed to be covered or whether Dumbledore had also informed Fudge that Voldemort was also still targeting the children he had grown up with at his orphanage as a side-lined personal vendetta; whether they were being protected by the auror department or the Order or neither of them at all. They had no way of finding out. Not unless he called on them.

They had been told by Marlene McKinnon at her house that Dumbledore was a fan of compartmentalisation and split the duties between members. She said you wouldn't know a mission was active unless you were either involved in it, instigated it or if you had been the one to bring the issue to the table. However if a previous mission had been fruitful, if it was preferable that participation was based on volunteering or if he had an assignment that was less about the needed skill to complete it and more about who had the time to undertake it at that moment, a meeting would be called and Dumbledore would lay out the information to everyone. But unless any of that happened, all they could do was sit and wait. And that was what they were doing, completely unaware that it was partly thanks to Lily's brief conversation with Dumbledore at Marlene's party that they were being left out of the loop. All they knew was that, at the minute, they weren't needed. Truth be told, it was frustrating and quite boring. For Peter and Lily who had a job and healer training respectively, it wasn't that bad. Most of their days were filled. But for Remus, Sirius and James, it was a different story.

Remus was rather used to the boredom, having been unsuccessful in securing himself a job. He was used to having to amuse himself alone in the mansion and had become rather good at it really. He read, he baked, he cleaned. He had even taken to grooming the horses and teaching himself to shakily ride Lily's push bike which had been left at the Potter mansion during the summer. He had also been trying to research a way to get Sirius' motorbike to fly. He had pretty much found himself a routine and had been living his life in solitude until his friends came home to amuse him. His life was basically still like this only with annoying whining from Sirius and half-arsed project mumblings from James.

Since quitting the auror training problem, both Sirius and James seemed to be at a loss to what to do. They had quit with the intention to focus all their energies on Order work, assuming that it would be a full time job and that they would have no time to do anything else. They had expected to be out in the thick of it every day, fighting death eaters and kicking butt; what they had initially thought the auror programme would be like. However, it seemed that this was less productive then that was as Dumbledore apparently didn't need them yet. At least in the training programme, though decidedly more dull as they didn't even have the opportunity to be called to arms, they were doing something. Now they just seemed to spend their days waiting. They were long and completely boring.

There were a few things they did and, for the first week, it had been great. They had the freedom to do what they wanted but the anticipation that at any moment they could be called up by Dumbledore to go and do something for the Order. However, after a second week of that, slowly realising that Dumbledore probably wanted the experienced Order members out there at the minute to deal with all that was going on, everything quickly became so 'been there done that'. Even Quidditch had become boring to them. There was only so much you could do with only two people. They could race laps and throw the Quaffle back and forth; see who could hit a bludger the farthest, but that was about it. They had fully explored the mansion within three days, something they hadn't actually done fully before, but that was done now too. They had found a few more interesting rooms, for example, one bizarre upside down room, an actual ballroom filled with balls and even a second large room dedicated to even more of James' family tree, but even their novelty had worn off within a few hours. Everything just seemed to lose its appeal and by the third week, they had come to a halt at a complete loss of what to do.

Sirius was probably the worse effected by the sudden lack of activity. He still hadn't learnt how to ride a push bike properly, let alone his own and Remus hadn't yet been able to find a way to permanently enchant the motorbike to fly. Without either of these things and the fact that he had now finished building it, there was nothing further he could do with it. So that option was ruled out to him. At night he could go to bars and pick up girls but, because he wasn't doing anything else, he didn't seem to be able to muster up the energy to do that either. Plus, James rarely wanted to go which annoyed Sirius as he was the best wing man out of his friends, having that sort of nature that just seemed to put people at ease. But Remus who was the next best thing, (still, a disastrous wing-man), didn't want to go either. After that Sirius was stuck with Peter who was as good as a dry wet-wipe. He was awful with the ladies. Lily was better than he was but she was at healer training all day and was just too exhausted to do anything other than see James if she came to the mansion. Sirius literally had nothing to do. Nothing but moan that he had nothing to do.

James had adjusted a little bit better but probably only because he had other things going on in his life as well. He was in the process of signing over the Potter properties into his own name and was in and out of the Ministry every few days to sign yet another form. If he had found his mother's will he wouldn't be and, if he happened to find it now, it would all stop and finally be done with. But as it was, it gave him something to do so he didn't mind too much. Otherwise, he created his own projects to fill his time. He had decided to learn the piano as there were several grand's sitting around the mansion. But after half a week, after Lily had bought him a book of the basics from a muggle shop, he had gotten bored and had given up. Then he had decided to reorganise the kitchen cupboards and get rid of some of the things that hadn't been used in years. But after taking everything out of them, he had given up on that too, leaving Remus to put everything back. His latest endeavour was to redecorate one of the spare rooms on the second floor so that he and Lily could have one to call their own when she stayed over, but he had given up on that too half way through pulling all the wall paper off of the walls by hand. He just didn't seem to finish what he started these days.

Nevertheless, James wasn't as bored as Sirius and that was probably due to Lily. He had someone who he could spend time with, someone who could never bore him and who he could sit in silence with and still have a better time than Sirius could. For James, all he had to do was fill the gaps where she was at healer training with something. Anything. Even the crossword puzzle in the Daily Prophet, which as a house rule had belonged to his mum, was sufficient enough to pass the time. If he could get through these hours, all of it, the agony of waiting for orders from Dumbledore to come through, was automatically diminished when Lily arrived. When she was there he felt relaxed and happy, something that had been hard for him to achieve by himself since his mum died. He felt whole when she was with him, no matter what they were doing.

Right now, she was researching common blood infections hereditary in witches and wizards and he was doing the crossword. He had started it earlier that day, hadn't been able to complete it and now, only under the suggestion of Lily, he tried giving another shot. He seemed rather annoyed at it but didn't give up this time, something he hadn't done in a while. And that probably had a strong relation to the fact that Lily was there.

They were sat in James' sitting room. James had his arm across the back of the sofa and his legs relaxingly open. Lily was sitting against the arm of the sofa as if it was the back and had her legs stretched out in front of her, resting on James' lap. They were the picture of contentment. But Lily's mind was another story.

She too, of course, had been a bit worried that the Order hadn't called upon them despite it being her wish that Dumbledore not give them anything just yet. But her awareness of the tense and frightened atmosphere that was building in the wizarding world had her questioning her request to him. People were literally looking around every corner suspiciously just in case. Nobody felt safe. But Lily's personal matters were also plaguing her and that was because, as obvious by their nature, they were personal.

Her dad's birthday was coming up this weekend and her mother wanted to go for a meal with Lily, Petunia, and their respective partners. Of course, Petunia and Vernon, married now, had already said they would go. Lily wanted to go too as it was her dad's birthday but was worried about James. On the one hand, she could go herself, no problem. She didn't exactly need him there for any particular reason other than it might be nice. She could cope without him. But on the other, he had been invited and she didn't want to just turn up without him and deal with the questions of why he wasn't there.

She could have asked him straight out when they were first invited but it hadn't been that long after he had lost his mum that the invitation from her mum had arrived. She thought it might be insensitive. So she had left it as late as possible and, now, her dad told her that they needed an answer by the next day so that they could book a table for the right amount of people. She was just worried of asking him because one; he might say no and two; he might not be ready to face Lily's family and receive what he might see as obligatory patronising condolences. Still, she kind of had no choice now.

'James?' Lily asked cautiously, looking up from her book to look at him. He was sat there unsuspectingly, doing the crossword in the Daily Prophet and frowning confusedly at it.

'I don't get how my mum used to do these you know.' he said offhandedly, 'They're bloody hard.'

'Well I don't think they're meant to be easy.' Lily pointed out. She leaned forwards and looked at the words that James had already filled out. 'You've spelt constellation wrong.' she pointed out.

'Well that'd explain why Bathilda didn't fit then.' he sighed, dipping his quill into the ink he had on the arm of the sofa and scribbling it out. 'What's up?' he asked.

'Well,' Lily began, 'It's my Dad's birthday this weekend and they've invited us to go to dinner with them.'

James frowned and put his quill and the newspaper down on the low table in front of them. He turned to face her. 'What?' he asked. It was a bit remarkable really. In no world could he think of a situation, birthday, Christmas, anniversary, anything, where Lily's dad would invite him anywhere. And this was a special occasion meal. Lily's dad still wasn't James' biggest fan. And he couldn't stand the thought that he might only have been invited because Richard pitied him.

'Don't be like that.' Lily told him, looking at him pointedly. 'They've invited us for a meal. Will you come?'

'Well...' James hesitated. He looked down with no particular enthusiasm for the invitation. He moved his hand over Lily's calf as he thought about it, thinking of how he didn't want to go but, upon looking up and seeing Lily's face, gave in. 'Fine.' he said, 'but does your Dad really want me there? He doesn't exactly like me.'

'No but he wants you there!' Lily insisted.

James looked at her doubtfully. 'His exact words were...?'

Lily looked back at him for a few brief seconds before giving up with the facade of a polite invitation from her dad. 'Well he said I could bring you...'

James raised his eyebrows.

'...If I must.'

James gave a breathless laugh and shook his head. He lent forwards to pick up the newspaper again. 'He's gonna have to get used to me eventually.' he stated surely. 'It's not like I'm going anywhere.'

So when it came to that weekend James and Lily left Sirius, Remus and Peter in the library of the Potter mansion, attempting to find a book that could lead them to a permanent flying charm to put on Sirius' motorbike, and went to Lily's dad's birthday meal. They apparated to an abandoned alleyway near Lily's house before making their way to the local public house where they were to meet Richard and Heather Evans and Vernon and Petunia Dursley. It was a short but pleasant walk and when they arrived at the pub, Lily's mother and father were waiting for them outside, informing them that Petunia and Vernon were inside waiting at the table. They went inside to join them at a table for six, tucked neatly onto an elevated platform with an archway wall providing privacy for the party. From end to end, Heather sat opposite James, Richard opposite Lily, and Petunia sat opposite Vernon who, with his large size, took up his portion of the table and about a third of Lily's leaving her to have to squash down a bit closer to James, not that he minded. He hadn't been close to her in a while and it was nice to have her so near. It didn't stop the knots going on in his stomach though.

James was, in all certainty, dreading this meal. The last thing he had considered was actually enjoying himself. He had twice deliberated on not coming, feigning being ill or something of the sorts to get out of it. After all, he was sat in the midst of a group with whom, two thirds, did not particularly like him. Petunia and Vernon Dursley, he assumed, did not have any patience for him or liked him in any way simply because he was a wizard. Of course, he had no confirmation that this was the case but from the way they treated Lily, something which angered him in a way he could not explain, his presumption was not unfounded. Vernon, though he had never met him before, had greeted him only with a look of contempt and a grunt, the same as he had with Lily, when they arrived at the pub. If he did somehow secretly harbour a liking for either of them, even for Lily being his sister-in-law, he had a funny way of showing it. So James thought it was safe to conclude that he did not enjoy being near them. He didn't care though. James found the feeling was pretty mutual. However, he had thought, perhaps, that Petunia Dursley wasn't all that she appeared.

Upon meeting her this evening, he noticed that the look of contempt that she gave at almost the exact same moment her husband had, was mingled with something else. He could have imagined it, being thrown off by the fact that she had said hello to them both and had somewhat politely asked how they were, but he sincerely doubted it. And because of this James couldn't find it in him to return any sort of dislike towards her but instead, found himself dwelling on his first and only other encounter with Lily's sister. When he had met her at her wedding he thought they had found some sort of mutual footing upon their shared dislike for Severus Snape, but he realised quickly that they did not like the boy for very different reasons. James was disgusted by Severus Snape because of his prejudice, the way he treated people with Lily's birth heritage as if they were dirt but, for a reason James had only figured out at the end of his sixth year at Hogwarts, held her in a special reverence. He did not like him, even hated him, because he was bigoted. And now James had joined the Order and had been told a list of known Death Eaters by Benjy Fenwick at Marlene's party, he also knew that Snape was a torturous murderer. So for these reasons, he despised him and his hate was not unfounded or questionable. But for Petunia Dursley he could tell that this was not the case for her. From what Lily had told him about her, he had a sneaking suspicion that her abhorrence towards Severus, towards anyone like them, was nothing more than a hidden loathing towards herself and the abilities she failed to possess. So James didn't dislike her, he couldn't. He did feel sorry for her but that didn't stop _her_ from loathing _him_.

Lily, of course was the exception to the stream of animosity that James felt being forced his way, along with Heather, Lily's mother. Heather was actually okay and liked James, never once doubting that he was anything other than good to and for Lily. She saw how happy he made her daughter and found James to be charming, funny and, above all, caring in the brief few times she had met him: once the previous Christmas when she had practically forced him to stay the night after Petunia's wedding and a few quick encounters in the summer when he came to pick Lily up to take her out, (something he always did). So if he had to be at this meal, he was glad he was sitting opposite Lily's mum rather than her father who, even after almost a year of knowing of him, still was not his greatest fan.

Richard Evans, though made fully aware by way of Heather and Lily that James was an upstanding lad who cared for his youngest daughter every way he could, who made her happy, who cared for his friends, who was fun and charming and handsome and who, as far as he knew, was in training to procure a position that meant he would one day help uphold the law, still did not care for the boy. And it was all based on the fact that when Lily was younger and used to come home for the summer, when she was still best friends with Severus Snape, they used to regale stories of how James had bullied Severus, telling Richard about the horrible things James used to do to him like hanging him upside down from a chandelier and giving other students sticks to poke him with. They had never revealed to him that Severus did, in the later years, give as good as he got or that Lily always yelled at James and called him out for doing such awful things. It also didn't seem to matter to Richard Evans that Lily had stopped being friends with Severus for calling her what he did and that it had been James to jump to her defence whenever it happened. It was always James. He hadn't taken notice that Lily obviously felt James had changed and was now a far better person than Severus would ever be. And apparently, he did not know and would probably never know that the boy James had indeed bullied was now serving under a radical tyrant, murdering people and torturing them under the name of purity which meant, one day, Lily would be a target of such events. If he did though, James did not know if he would change his opinion of him, merely of Snape. Still, today James had noticed that Richard was trying his hardest not to give him the disapproving looks he usually did whenever he saw him. And he knew why that was. It was another reason James didn't want to be here. He was aware that Lily's family, or at least her parents, knew of his own mother's death and he did not want to have to endure their pity upon him. If there was one thing James could not stand, it was being pitied. Besides, being with Lily's whole family reminded him painfully that he no longer had one. He didn't expect to enjoy himself. He didn't expect to find his old humorous self and fall back into the rhythm of his relationship with Lily. And he certainly didn't expect to spend the first fifteen or so minutes laughing himself silly. But that was exactly what he ended up doing.

It started when the group perused the menu at length; the only words being spoken at this time were by Vernon who was going about the benefits of the promotion he had been given a few months back. But after he had finished going on about the company car he had received, the rise in pay and holiday time, the many people who he was now in charge of, he went on to speak about the fact that he was also allowed a rather sizable discount off of the new drills that had just been purchased by the company. It was twenty minutes of this and by this time, everyone had put their menu's down. Everyone that is, bar Vernon and James. The reason Vernon was still looking at his menu was obvious to everyone; he was too busy yammering on to vacant expressions and uninterested ears about his job to bother deciding what he wanted to eat. But the reason James was still looking at his menu was unclear to everyone. He had in actuality decided what he wanted to eat at first glance, knowing he wanted the cottage pie as it had been coached into him by Sirius the previous day that that was what he should order and now his mind allowed him no other alternative. So the reason his menu was still near his face was because he was using it to hide his laughter. This only became apparent to Lily when she saw him manoeuvre his menu to better hide his face.

'Why are you laughing?' she whispered to him, touching his thigh underneath the table to get his attention.

James moved his menu so he could see her but so that his own face was still blocked to the other side of the table. He looked at her with questioning humour, raising his eyebrows and looking just over her head to Vernon who was still babbling away about the speed of the new drills his company had in stock. 'You've gotta be kidding right?' he said, still chuckling away to himself, his smile infectious.

'No.' Lily continued to whisper, feeling herself smiling along with him. She squeezed his thigh in pleading. 'What's so funny?'

'He's been on about the same thing for ten minutes.' James replied, laughter always present in his voice, 'At first I was thinking like, this is so dull I think I might just die here from sheer boredom, something to do you know? But then I realised that I just have no idea what he's on about.'

'And that made you laugh?' Lily wondered, rather bewildered at why it was so incredibly funny to him.

'Yeah.' James nodded, 'Because then I thought that, as I dunno what he's on about anyway, I could just change the word drill into any other word I know and see if that made sense.'

'Oh god! What word did you choose?' Lily asked, her shoulders relaxing in knowing it would be something silly but a small smile appearing on her face. She hadn't seen this side of James in a while and it was something she found she missed. It sent butterflies through her stomach when he gave her his signature infallible smirk as a reply, moving his hand to where hers rested and squeezing it once. Then he began to chuckle to himself again, not letting her know what he had replaced the word drill with.

'You know,' he said to her, continuing on in conversation as she was still looking at him with that fond loving smile, 'I could probably get myself at least an O on a test about drills after this.'

Lily frowned at him. 'You don't like taking tests.' she said.

James widened his eyes at her for a second and then leaned into her, the laughter gone but humour still in his face. 'Then I must be delusional.' he whispered, 'Save me from my hell Lily. Save me. Saaave meeeee-'

'Ok.' Lily laughed, shaking her head at him. She turned to the table at large and announced, cutting clear across Vernon, who looked mightily insulted by the action, that she and James were going to go to the bar to get drinks. She asked who wanted what and listened to their requests before pulling James up and walking with him in tow away from the table, through the archway wall and over to the bar.

'You couldn't have done that before?' James muttered to her as they made their way away from the group.

'Well I thought you were still looking at your menu!' Lily exclaimed with a laugh as the pair stopped at the bar and leant upon it, looking at each other. 'How was I supposed to know you were cackling like a bloody mad man?'

'I dunno.' James shrugged, looking over the bar now to have a look at what drinks there were in muggle pubs. He hoped they had that bubbly stuff that Lily usually ordered for them if they went to a muggle restaurant. 'Girlfriend intuition?' he suggested.

'Oh if only there was such a thing!' Lily said, 'Then you wouldn't be such a mystery to me.'

'Ah! What's life without a bit of mystery?' James grinned, looking back to her.

'With you, probably very stressful.' Lily stated.

'What's that supposed to mean?' James asked with confusion, a small frown appearing on his face.

Lily smiled fondly and shook her head. She looked at him for a few seconds before realising she felt comfortable enough to find the relationship they had before it had been consumed by tragic events. She reached a couple of fingers out and touched the crease between his eyebrows. 'Just with all the things you get up to…' she started pointedly, obviously referring to his illegal activities with Sirius and Peter when they went out to help Remus during the full moon, '…knowing about it all would probably make me crazy.'

'Make you?' James smirked teasingly.

Lily dropped her hand and narrowed her eyes at him.

James laughed and took her hand into both of his. 'I'm kidding!' he assured her, grasping it firmly as he brought it to his lips and placed a single kiss upon it. He looked over their hands with another smirk. 'Kind of.'

Lily was just about to retort, make some sarcastic comment in reply or point out that, between the two of them, James was much more likely to be defined as crazy than she was, when they were joined at the bar by her father. Lily couldn't say she was happy her dad had walked up to them, enjoying the fact that James seemed to be back to his old self, joking and laughing with her, teasing her and just being a bit silly. It was nice to see. She knew it would come around again eventually, knowing that James was not one to stay sad for long, even after something like the loss of his mum exactly six weeks ago. But she wasn't so delusional as to think that he had moved on from it, forgotten it or was unable to revert back to the introverted sadness if something was said to remind him of it. So, her dad walking up to them, him having not seen James at all since it had happened, made her wary of losing the laughter James had regained. It might be selfish of her but it was true. As it happened though, for this encounter, she did not need to worry.

'All right you two.' Richard said, slotting himself in uncomfortably between them and breaking their grasps with each other's hands.

Lily looked apologetically at James who, as he had found himself in a surprisingly good mood thanks to Vernon's talk about drills, just shrugged it off and winked at her.

'Thought you might need some money to pay for these drinks you're supposed to be getting.' Richard stated, looking at James with a testing expression, his wallet at the ready in his hand.

'Nah it's alright.' James replied, waving away Richard's somewhat ambiguous offer to pay for the drinks. James took his own wallet out of his back pocket, making sure that his wand was not showing for muggles may think it odd, a boy with what appeared to be a stick in his pocket, and put it on the bar.

'Do you have the _right_ money?' Richard asked doubtfully, staring at the wallet that seemed to be rather full. He assumed it was full with those chunky gold coins that Lily had in her room, the ones she had to use in the wizarding world. For what else would James have in his wallet? 'Because if you don't,' Richard went on with the air of someone who seemed to be forcing themselves to be nice, 'Heather has told me that we are to pay for you.'

'No it's really fine.' James replied, picking up his wallet and opening it to reveal the cash inside, the amount of which made Richard raise his eyebrows. James pushed himself off of the bar and walked around to the other side of Lily, knowing he had enough money but struggling on what was what and how much he needed. 'Which ones?' he asked her, plainly holding out the open wallet for anyone and his wife to see, uncaring about any hungry eyes that may be turning their way and especially not worried about Richard's questioning one.

Lily looked into James wallet and quickly took it off him, not wanting her dad to see the contents for there was more in there than just money. She turned herself to face the bar which James was now leaning one forearm on, using his other hand to play with the belt loop on Lily's jeans. She tried to ignore him and shook her head, discreetly starting to count the money he had brought with him. 'Here.' she said, taking out a solitary single ten pound note and handing it to him. Not that he took it. He didn't know what to do with it. He just shrugged and continued to wind his finger round her jeans, trying to discreetly pull her closer towards him.

Lily continued to ignore him and turned to her dad instead to give the tenner to him. He hesitated, not taking it but instead looking curiously at James. Then, he suddenly gave a single laugh. 'Dinners on you then!' he joked, looking pointedly at James as this was who the statement was for.

Lily's eyes widened as she looked at her father in shock. 'Dad!' she said in a hushed voice.

'It's a joke sweet pea!' he said.

'I don't mind paying.' James shrugged with an expression of 'sure why not' written on his face. 'Call it a birthday present.'

Richard paused again and looked once more, curiously upon James. He had truly been joking and did not, in any capacity, expect James to pay for anything. And he knew that James knew that. So why was he willing to disregard the humorous setting and offer to pay for people who did not look upon him with the kindest of expressions? It was odd to Richard to see this sort of generosity in the boy he had not looked upon so kindly so far. So he brushed it off. He told James, in no short way, that he did not have to pay for anything and to stop being stupid. He then ordered drinks and instructed the barmaid that she was to put them on a tab for them which they would later add their meals too. And after another confused look at James who just politely smiled back at him, he made his way to the table, his daughter and her boyfriend following only seconds later with a few of the tables drinks.

The group stayed at the table for more than two hours, receiving the food they had ordered in good time after ordering it. The bulk of the conversation that went on between the six of them was mostly controlled by Vernon with the odd comment from Richard and then the subsequent reprimand for that comment from Heather. Petunia had spent most of the meal backing up her husband's adventurously boring and long-winded stories. Lily had merely asked a couple of questions which, in James' opinion, had been knocked down rather rudely by Vernon. There was no need for the way he had spoken to her but, from a subtle squeeze of the hand under the table, James knew he was to keep his mouth shut about it all and just let it go. You could still read his annoyance on his face but, for the most part, he kept his feelings to himself, not speaking a word until Petunia announced at the end of the meal, after Vernon had finished off not only his own but everyone else's meals, that it was time for them to be going. Apparently, they had the telephone company coming round in the morning to install a new phone line. James had then spoken and asked what a telephone was. But they didn't explain it to him. They merely gave him a contemptuous look and bid a farewell to Richard and Heather and left the restaurant.

They remaining party sat around in silence for a few moments before James found the courage to say what was on everyone's mind.

'It's not just me right?' he asked them all, 'He is a dull bloke.'

To everyone's surprise Richard started to laugh, for James had stated it so bluntly and honestly. Lily and James shared a confused and shocked look before looking over to Heather for an explanation. She just shook her head and looked at the three empty pint glasses stood in front of her husband, thinking this to be the reason why Richard had laughed at what James had said.

'I think you've had a bit too much to drink dear.' she said, patting her husband's hand as he continued to laugh to himself. Heather ignored her husband and turned to James instead.

'So how are you James?' she asked him, the moment James had originally feared would come his way if he came to this meal upon him now; the sympathy.

James breathed out with a forced smile which turned more into grimace. 'I'm doing ok thank you.' he said. A part of him wished Vernon and Petunia to come back. Being bored senseless by Vernon's anecdotes of unimportant golf games and hearing the shrill laugh of Petunia as she giggled at her husband's jokes for what must have been the hundredth time would be a preferable torture to undeniable pity.

'It must be hard to lose your mum so suddenly.' Heather said with a sympathetic tilt of her head, 'And I understand you lost your dad a while back too? Is there anyone there to help you?'

James thought for a moment and looked down at the table. He could only think of one person. 'Lily.' he said, turning his head to look at her. He took her hand on the table and held it for dear life, not wanting to let go. 'She's been brilliant.' he went on, speaking to Heather but only looking at Lily as Lily looked back at him. He smiled at her adoringly. They seemed to be entranced in their own little world, something between them so powerful that it emanated out and even got Richard to stop laughing and, for perhaps the fifth time that night, stare confusedly at James. Heather didn't look confused though. She looked rather proud and happy at the pair of them, leaving it a couple of minutes before speaking herself.

'I'm glad she's been there to help you.' she said with a smile, 'But if you do need anything else, anything at all, then you know where we are. Right Richard?'

Richard was still looking curiously at the pair of them. He answered slowly. 'Yeah…of course… (I guess…)'

'Richard!' Heather reprimanded, 'There is no guessing! We will help him if he needs us!' She turned back to James who deigned to look at her this time, pulling his gaze away forcefully from Lily. Heather's voice softened. 'Anything you need, just ask. We know it can't be easy. If you need shopping or if you need a place to stay-'

Richard made an odd strangled noise in the back of his throat which made Lily give a single soundless laugh.

'-don't hesitate to ask.' Heather went on, ignoring Richard and Lily and speaking only to James. 'I realise your mum must have been supporting you financially and giving you a place to live and if you find you can't continue this on your own…well…we're here for you.'

James smiled down at the table. The pity wasn't what he had expected. In fact, it wasn't pity at all. It was unfailing and unconditional kindness he was receiving from Heather (and Richard) Evans. It was the same kindness that he saw in Lily every day, her acceptance of everything and everyone. Now he saw where she got it from.

'Thank you.' he said sincerely, 'That's really nice of you. But I wouldn't worry about it too much. House wise I'm set. Same with money. But thank you.'

Heather gave him a caring smile. They talked for a while longer, Heather, James and Lily, about random trivial things, James getting to hear some stories about Lily from when she was a child which he loved hearing. Richard was falling asleep in his chair and it was only after half an hour of this that Heather thought it would be best to get her husband home. It was winter now and dark out. It would be icy on the roads and so would be very late before they got back if they didn't leave now. As they went though, as they said goodbye, something happened that never had before. Richard shook James' hand. And Richard Evans had only one true belief: you could tell what a man was like from his handshake. He looked surprisingly shocked as he shook James' hand. Whether that was down to tiredness, drunkenness or actually disbelief that perhaps, through this handshake, he began to realise that James wasn't what he had assumed him to be, nobody knew. And nobody would.

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**Thanks for reading!**

**Review if you want to! :)**

**The next update will be on 31st of July and I promise to make it on time this time because it is Harry's birthday! Yay! :)**

**Galindaba**


	20. Chapter 19

**Hey everyone!**** :D**

**So it's Happy Birthday Harry AND the queen herself J.K. Rowling! :) Should be a global holiday really!**

**Thank you to my reviewers! imagionista, I have never thought of Vernon meeting Sirius so you've set my imagination wheels rolling! One shot's may be rolling out in the future! :p And Clozza, HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR THE 1ST OF AUGUST! I am giving you two chapters today and virtual birthday hugs!**

**So here's Chapter Nineteen! I hope you enjoy it!**

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**Chapter Nineteen**

'Just like flying a broom.' James joked, turning his head to grin at Lily, taking in her messed up deep red hair which was splayed on the pillow her head was resting on.

The pair of them lay next to each other in the bedroom that they shared when Lily stopped over, both trying to catch their breaths. It had happened all of a sudden, not that Lily could say that she had minded but she definitely hadn't expected it. She and James hadn't been intimate for a while which was understandable given everything that had recently happened. He hadn't been in the mood for a while now, stricken with grief over the past month and a half. And before that, she had been far too busy to see him or had always been switching plans on him. If she had to pinpoint the last time they had had sex, she would have had to have said the day of their inductions into their respective training programmes. The eighteenth of September. And now it was the third of December! That was ages ago, too long in Lily's opinion which she actually found rather odd considering they hadn't been having sex for the first eleven or so months of their relationship. But now they had started and she knew what she was missing out on with him, everything coming to a bit of a standstill in that department had now become too much for her and she was coveting him badly. That morning when she woke up, nothing had been different.

She woke before him, at ten o'clock when the weak winter sun had shone through the gap in the curtains and had shone on to him temptingly. She looked at him as slept, peaceful with one arm behind his head and the other looking as if it was almost reaching out to her. His handsome face was relaxed and his jet black hair just as scruffy as always. He was the epitome of peace but still, she tapped his arm to wake him up, running her hand down his bare chest whilst he found it in him to open his eyes. But when he had made a sound, almost as if to let her know he was awake, she had quickly removed her hand from him as if it were running across hot coals. Her eyes lingered on him though, staring at his body as he stretched his arms out in front of him, watching as the muscles flexed in his arms and his toned chest tightened. Her expression, which was entranced in James, her mouth falling open slightly for the sight of him and her shallow breathing must have tipped him off to what she wanted because, the next thing she knew, he had flipped her onto her back and pinned her underneath him, smirking at her mischievously before kissing her ravenously, Lily responding immediately after the initial shock, hungrily and eagerly. And now, after a good solid twenty minutes, they were both out of breath and trying to recover.

'I think you mean riding a bike.' Lily laughed at him, also turning her head to look at him in return, 'It's just like riding a bike.'

James frowned and sat up, reaching over to the side table and picking up his glasses, putting them on fluently with one hand. As he spoke, he turned back to face her and leant on one elbow his hand in his messy hair, the other arm resting on his side, his hand hanging relaxingly on his stomach. 'I've never ridden a bike.'

Lily mimicked his position, the satin sheets of the bed draping over her form teasingly. 'Well I've never ridden a broom.' she said.

James looked slightly suspicious. He reached out his hand from his stomach and moved it over her waist slowly to the small of her back and then, gently but quickly, pulled her towards him. 'And how did you ever manage that?' he asked her, kissing her softly before she could answer. When he released her from his kiss, he continued, whispering against her lips. 'There's a mandatory flying class first year at Hogwarts.' He kissed her again until she pulled away to speak.

'I know.' Lily smiled, moving a hand to rest on his heart. It was beating fast at being so close to her. She loved that she had this effect on him. It gave her an unexplainable feeling in her stomach, like butterflies but tenfold. She started to draw little circles with her forefinger over his heart, watching her work as she spoke again. 'But I really didn't want to ride a broom so I said I had period pains.'

James gave a single amused laugh, gripping her closer to him in a quick jolted action, stopping her circles suddenly. He looked down at her as she looked up to him through her eyelashes. 'My, my…' he whispered, a smirk forming on his face. 'Miss Evans skipped a class. Who'd have guessed it.' he said, and then adding as a side note, brief concern flitting across his face, 'There's a potion to help with period pains by the way.'

Lily smiled, almost sweetly if there wasn't mischief mixed into her expression tenfold. 'I know.' she smirked, 'But I, an unknowing muggle-born, had no knowledge of this at the time until Madam Hooch sent me to Madam Pomfrey.'

James narrowed his eyes at her, knowing her very well. 'You little liar.' he said with a slow shake of his head, an almost proud smile finding its way to his face.

Lily just grinned at him before James shook his head again and kissed her again, this time deeply. He captured her lips passionately, his tongue searching for entry which she automatically granted, her own tongue dancing with his. He pulled her ever closer to him, as close as they could possibly get. He ran his hand from the small of her back and moving to her backside whilst she pressed her hands against his chest, her nails scratching at his slightly as she gripped into him. They lay there like this for around half a minute or so before they were disturbed by a solitary 'eep' from the door way.

They pulled apart suddenly in shock, Lily pulling the covers up a bit more on impulse, and looked over to the door which now stood open. It was Peter who stood in the door way, his eyes scrunched closed, probably from seeing what they were doing, (which now was genuinely nothing but kiss), his hand gripping the door handle tightly.

'Oh.' James began, releasing Lily from his grasp and gesturing with the hand he had been touching her with. 'Do come in Peter. It's not like we're, you know, naked or anything.' he went on, clear annoyance in his voice. 'Oh wait.' he added on the end, sarcastically slow, his arm dropping like a dead wait onto his side.

'I'm sorry.' Peter squeaked, now keeping his eyes closed tightly for two reasons: he didn't want to see anything of James and Lily and what they were doing, and he also didn't want to see James' annoyance at him.

'It's fine.' Lily assured him kindly, receiving a look of annoyed questioning from James who still looked rather irritated that Peter had entered the room. Lily ignored him though, widening his eyes in a gesture that told him to play nice and turned her attention to Peter. 'What's up Peter?'

'Err…' Peter stammered, becoming a bit lost as to where he was, spots dancing on the lids of his eyes as he squeezed them shut harder, trying not to focus on the state of undress the person he was talking to was in. To think of Lily like that was bad for him. Not only because of what it could do to him physically but because of what James would do to him if he ever suspected or found out. Peter was sure that James, who was not a physically violent person, who didn't hit people in any kind of malice, would beat him up for the thought. 'S-Sirius…Moony and Padfoot think-think they've found a way…to make the bike fly.' he managed to get out to her.

'And?' James asked, tiredly.

'They need Lily's help with the charm.' Peter said quietly, almost as if he was scared to get told off.

'Uugh…' James sighed, flopping onto his back and letting his eyes roll back in frustration. 'Fine.'

'I'll-I'll…leave…' Peter said, trying to find his footing back out of the door smoothly without having to open his eyes. He backed himself into the door-frame, not once, but twice as he tried to exit the room to which James laughed at, but in the end, he did manage to successfully manoeuvre himself out of the room to allow Lily and James to shower and get dressed.

* * *

It was now winter, very almost Christmas. The grounds were decorated accordingly. Not with tinsel or baubles mind you, just with a lot of frost. It was covering the grass in a visible thick layer. The tips of conifer trees were dusted white and the trunks at the bottom were shrouded in a thin low lying layer of fog which made the forests of the grounds seem ominous and mystifying. It was almost freezing out. Any animals that roamed the Potter's grounds, the sheep and the deer, had all crowded together to stay warm or else seeked shelter in the available outhouses that were dotted around here, there and everywhere. The only animals that needn't find themselves shelter were the horses as they already had an enclosure of their own, their stables filled with warm hay, but a few daring sheep had forced them to share it, choosing to seek refuge there instead of trekking out to find somewhere else. But if they had trekked to an outhouse, if it wasn't already full of animals, it would be one in which either brooms were kept or other forms of transportation.

Remus and Sirius were in one such outhouse, the one where Sirius kept his motorbike. They were both wrapped up warmly, Remus thinking it totally bizarre that they had made the journey out on such a cold day. They were leaning on the worktop and pouring over a book they had found tucked high into the shelves of the library in the Potter mansion. Remus was reading the instructions to the charm he had found, frowning at the complicated instructions of how to master it and where it should be placed. It kept referring to the power source but Remus, who had no clue whatsoever about motorcycles, hadn't the faintest idea of where that was. Sirius kept changing his mind about it as well. At first he was adamant that the charm was to be placed on the key used to turn it on, the object that was indeed used to power it up. But then he had thought about what that key was turning on; the engine. Surely that was the power source? But the engine was fuelled by the petrol. And the way to get the bike actually moving was the accelerator. And the accelerator relied on the wheels of the bike to actually carry out the forwards motion. So, in the end, he had talked himself out of knowing what was what and, as Remus was next to no help, he decided that it was probably best that they wait for Lily who had grown up around such vehicles in the muggle world. He just wished she would hurry up.

For Sirius, this day had been building for almost two years now. When it came to Christmas, in about twenty or more days' time, Sirius would have had the parts for his bike for two whole years. It would also be the anniversary of when he had begun to piece it together using the manual that the Potters had bought him for Christmas that year. Of course, when he had started to build the bike he hadn't thought about the prospect of enchanting it to fly but, when it had occurred to him, he had thought of little else. He had wondered how it could be possible, thought about what he would do if he ever did in fact get the bike in the air, and had tried to find the answers but had failed to do so. That was when he enlisted Remus' help. Remus was the smartest, book wise anyway. He was the one who actually read. So out of all of them, he would be the one who would be able find what Sirius was looking for. And after a year and a half of searching, now he had. However, it seemed that he was unable to complete the charm himself through lack of knowing where to put it. He needed outside help and, desperately wanting his bike to finally be complete and knowing that she was the best at charms, Sirius had been forced to ask Lily.

So now, as they waited for her to come down, Sirius had moved on from trying to figure out what the power source they were supposed to enchant was and instead, spoke enthusiastically about what he was going to do first when his bike was finally able to fly. It was his plan to ride his bike over to Grimmauld place and give his family the shock of their lives: one, that he had returned, and two, that he had only returned only to, once again, rub it in their faces that he was not like them.

'Just imagine though Moony,' Sirius said, turning his head to stare up to the ceiling beams of the outhouse wistfully, 'I turn up, riding a muggle vehicle, and before my dear old mum and dad can yell at me once more that I am a disappointment to the family name of Black, I kick it in gear and it rises into the air and then…ah then Moony! They all drop dead from the shock of it all!'

Remus didn't look up from the book or move from where he was leaning on the worktop. His expression never changed even though Sirius was effectively planning on how to kill his parents. It was because, despite the problems he had with them, the fact that he had run away from them at the tender age of sixteen, officially moved into the Potter's place when he was seventeen and legally able to, and was completely estranged from them now, he knew he didn't mean it. Sirius, though he talked the talk, could never kill someone. Not even the family he hated so much. 'You don't mean that.' Remus stated.

'Yes I do!' Sirius protested.

Remus gave him an exasperated look. 'You'll go over there sure and crash through the front door, killing their dreams of you returning in a brainwashed state all ready and willing to join Voldemort-'

Sirius was nodding slowly with a grin.

'-but I know that the last thing you'd want to do is actually kill them.' Remus finished. 'Is it?'

Sirius' face deflated. He looked to the work surface and picked at the chipped wood for a couple seconds, answering Remus with a sigh. 'No.' he said turning to face his motorbike and now leaning his back against the wooden work top, his thick jacket riding up slightly at the back against the splintered surface. 'Could at least hospitalise them though…' he finished in thought to which Remus shook his head and chuckled.

Remus turned around as well, the book in his hands now, and leaned upon the work top in very much the same fashion that Sirius was doing, his woollen jumper even riding up his back half an inch or so as Sirius jacket had. 'You can always hope.' he replied with a smirk.

Sirius laughed and punched Remus brotherly on the arm, the strength he had thanks to being a beater all these years coming out in him and causing Remus to stumble a little bit to the side from the action. Remus didn't care though and Sirius didn't notice as he had walked over to his bike, finally uncovered from the dust sheet he had been keeping over it for the past two or so months. He went over and gently ran a hand over the handle bars as if it was the most precious thing in the world to him. And it was. All four of the marauders had something that was most precious to them, and so did Lily. For her, it was the phoenix tear drop necklace that James had bought her for her eighteenth birthday. For Remus it was the first edition book Dumbledore had lent him and subsequently let him keep when he had tried to return it. For Peter it was his room in the Potter mansion that he prized and for James it was Lily. For Sirius though, it was his hand constructed motorbike and he treated that thing with more care and respect than he did anything or anyone else. Everyone knew this and the action of him stroking his bike gently as if it were a puppy was not uncommon to see. So when James, Lily and Peter walked over to the outhouse, none of them felt the need to question it. Remus felt the need to question Peter though.

'Why so pale Wormy?' he asked Peter as he approached him. His eyes were wide and his skin was a ghostly white. He was walking at least three yards apart from James and Lily who strolled in casually, James with his hands in his pockets and Lily with her arms folded in the chill of winter. Next to them Peter looked extremely uncomfortable. He kept glancing sideways nervously at them, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead which was unusual to see in December. 'You look as though you're gonna be sick.' Remus carried on, frowning concernedly at Peter.

'Don't be sick near my bike.' Sirius stated straight away, looking pointedly at Peter for him to move away. He had turned his back on his motorbike, guarding it protectively from any bodily fluids that Peter may or may not expel.

Remus gave him a look. 'You're so thoughtful and caring.' he stated in a sarcastic monotone before turning back to Peter. 'What's up Pete?' he asked, closing the book he still had in his hand but keeping his thumb in the middle of it so that he didn't lose the page the enchantment was on.

Peter's eyes stayed wide and he just shook his head a minimal amount, not speaking, and glancing quickly at Lily. James answered for him.

'He walked in after me and Lily had had sex.' he said.

'Yikes.' Sirius said, relaxing his protective stance and looking over sympathetically to Peter. 'Don't worry Wormy, I'd be pale too.' he assured him, clapping him on the shoulder absentmindedly as he looked over to an unimpressed Lily and a nonchalant James. 'What a terrifying sight.' he went on, as if he were describing a horrifying scene from a horror film. 'Hair all messed up. Lipstick smudged. Mascara under the eyes. The sweat. The red raw boobs...And that's just James.'

Remus laughed opening the book again to the right page and studying it some more. Peter tittered along with him but it really did nothing to stop his mind thinking about it. James narrowed his eyes at Sirius who was snickering to himself at his own joke. In the end Lily, who had laughed along with Remus at Sirius' comments, broke the silence first.

'What do you need help with?' she asked Sirius.

'Learning how to hula hoop.' Sirius deadpanned, not giving her any answers. He released his hand from Peter's shoulder and pushed him gently away from him, towards the corner of the outhouse where he walked to dutifully.

Remus sighed and gave Lily the answer she had been looking for from Sirius. 'He doesn't know where the power source is or what we're meant to do to get it to fly.' he said, walking over to Lily and showing her the page in the book he had been looking at. 'We're meant to enchant _something_ but I dunno what and, seeing as you're best at charms and you're muggle-born, we thought you could help us with it all.'

Lily frowned at the page in concentration. It looked to be rather complicated and, from the general gist she got of the spell, she presumed that some changes would have to be made to Sirius' bike before anything could be charmed to fuel a flying vehicle. But before she helped them with it, she had one question. She was rather afraid to hear the answer though.

'Is this actually legal?' she asked them as a group.

Peter looked to Remus, who looked a little bit befuddled and, in turn looked over to James and Sirius, both of whom shrugged.

Lily looked around at them all in exasperation. 'I don't want to do anything illegal.' she said, 'And if you lot _do_ do this and it _is_ illegal then you could all go to Azkaban.'

'That's a bit of an over statement.' James said with a frown.

'No it's not.' Lily replied, lowering her voice to a worried whisper 'You're already illegal animagi, you three.' (she gestured around to Sirius, James and Peter) 'Do you _really_ want to tempt fate and add another crime to your list? If the Ministry find out about this charm and dig deeper they could find out about the other. I don't want to be visiting you in Azkaban.'

'We won't go to Azkaban.' James shrugged, seemingly unphased that it had been mentioned that he and his friends had broken the law, as if it was an everyday conversation piece and nothing to worry about. 'At least not for enchanting a bike to fly. I mean, yeah for being illegal animagi we could each get five to seven years in Azkaban a piece if they were in any way able to prove it, which they can't. But the bike thing's not a big deal. You can enchant any object you want as long as you don't intend to use it for muggle-baiting. If you _did_ use it to bate muggles then sure, you can get fined up to five hundred galleons and get a mark on your criminal record, but if it's an accident then all you get is a warning from the M.L.E.P. But, you know I assume that's not what Sirius wants to do so… When it comes to _using_ the bike though, he does need to make sure that muggles don't actually _see_ it fly cause _that_ would be breaking the International Statute of Secrecy of 1692 which is worse than being accused of muggle-baiting. But, again there's no Azkaban trip for that either. The fine is steeper though and if the case is severe enough they can actually revoke your wand and break it in two. But you can appeal your case before that happens and explain any mitigating circumstances you've got. But, then again, in the past fifty years there are actually only three appeals out of a hundred and twenty-seven that have been won…' He shrugged again. 'I shouldn't worry about that really though as long as he's careful when taking it out.'

There was an air of shocked silence in the outhouse, a brief moment when all you could hear was the cold winter wind whistling outside. Peter looked extremely confused about what had been said, not understanding any of it. Sirius, who was stood next to James with his arms folded, was looking at him with slight disgusted alarm that his best friend and number one co-conspirator in slacking, off actually knew some information that genuinely showed his intelligence. It was odd for him and you could see it in his face that he didn't really like it; James showing the fact that he was clever and had actually learnt something during their brief spell in the auror training programme. Remus was looking at James with mild interest, raising his eyebrows and nodding his head slightly. Lily however, through James' entire little speech, had begun to smile. She looked extremely proud of him, beaming at his impressive knowledge of the law. She found it incredibly attractive in him when he showed that he was not actually an idiot. Not that he knew that.

James frowned to himself and looked diagonally down at the floor. 'That was probably far more information than you needed to know…'

'Well,' Sirius said, clapping his hand on James shoulder, shaking away his disgust and grinning instead. 'All I heard was no Azkaban. And that sounds good to me. Let's get started!'

The group looked at Sirius and heeded his words, all setting to work, only it wasn't what Sirius imagined it would be. Peter stood in the exact same place he had been, in the corner, shuffling his feet awkwardly with nothing else to do. James folded his arms and looked up to the beams of the outhouse, studying them intently. And Remus and Lily just went from looking at Sirius back to the book in Remus' hands, reading it with thorough concentration.

'I thought there'd be more action to it…' Sirius muttered to James who only gave him a sparing look and then went back to looking at the ceiling beams.

'Well they need to figure out the spell first…' he said in return, 'Has there always been that hole in the wood?'

Sirius looked up to what James was referring too and shrugged not wanting to tell James that, no that hole had not always been there because that would lead onto the conversation of how it had. And Sirius didn't want to tell him that one day, not too long ago, when he had tried to ride his bike out of the outhouse, he had instead flipped it upside down accidentally as he had forgotten to take the brake off when hitting the accelerator. When it turned itself over, Sirius had sent out a spell in his alarm and had nicked the ceiling beam. _That _was exactly the reason why he wasn't supposed to work on his bike, let alone ride it, when no one else was there. 'Dunno.' he said brushing it off, 'Hey why'd you still know all that stuff? Like, we gave the books back man! Let it go.'

'Yeah but I'd already learnt it.' James said, 'Can't unlearn something Paddy.'

'I did!' Sirius grinned, 'Just emptied my head of all that crap.'

'Well we can't all be as empty headed as you Sirius.' Lily said offhandedly, reaching over to turn the page in the book to read the continuation on the next page.

'Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that was meant to be an insult.' Sirius said, looking to James for confirmation.

'I was wrong.' Lily grinned, looking up from the book and walking over to Sirius motorbike, ruffling his hair as she went, 'Seems you do still have a bit of a brain up there.'

'_Don't_ touch my hair!' Sirius ducked, protecting his hair with his hands and slapping Lily's away. 'Prongs!' he moaned.'

'Hey you deal with her yourself.' James shrugged unhelpfully, putting his hands in his pockets and following Lily with his eyes as she walked around the bike, inspecting the wheels. 'I'm not getting involved.'

'Sometimes I hate you, you know!' Sirius snarked at James who smirked in return.

'Least the feelings mutual.' he chuckled.

The outhouse fell quiet for a few moments as Lily continued her inspection of the bike, completely oblivious to the four boys in the shed and what they were doing. She failed to notice the James had leant against the wall with his arms folded and his legs crossed, (his usual position), and was now inspecting her from a far as she was inspecting the bike. She didn't notice Remus sit down on a stool near the worktop, balance the book on his head and conjure a small blue flame to light up the furnace in the cool outhouse. She didn't notice Peter shivering near the door way, wrapping his scarf around him tighter to close the draft around his neck. And she didn't notice Sirius crouch down next to her which meant, when he spoke, he shocked the like out of her and she almost fell backwards.

'Problem?' he asked, catching Lily as she jumped and stumbled, steadying her with both hands whilst raising his eyebrows and laughing at her. 'You drunk?' he joked with a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

'No.' Lily said, standing up, (Sirius doing the same), and placing a hand over her now fast beating heart. 'You just scared the living crap out of me.' she breathed.

'Does that to most people.' Remus commented casually, clasping his hands together, his fingers interlocking. James chuckled at his joke and Peter did the same. Sirius just ignored them.

'So why were you looking at the wheels?' Sirius asked concernedly, worry creasing his forehead 'Is the pressure off?'

Remus and James shared a look of confusion, both shrugging and completely at a loss of what this meant. Lily however, seemed to understand and answered the question knowingly.

'No it's fine.' she said with a small nod before demonstrating what she said next with her hands. 'It's just…because you're gonna have it in the air, there's gonna be no resistant force pushing against the tyres like there would be when you're on the ground, so the structure of the bike might not be able to hold the pressure of having to hold the full weight of you and whoever you're riding with.'

Sirius paused, his eyes narrowing. 'Are you calling me fat Lilykins?'

'Are you seriously calling me Lilykins?' Lily smirked, 'You know what happened last time when you did that.'

Sirius looked Lily up and down and took a step backwards, looking towards James with a bit of a scared expression. Last time he had called Lily Lilykins she had cast an itching spell on him and he had commenced to scratch himself raw for two days until he apologised to her and she had removed it for him. He didn't want to go through that again. Nobody could get away with calling Lily anything but her given names. Except for James of course. He could call her Lils, or Lily-love or. That was about it though.

'Statement withdrawn.' Sirius said.

Lily laughed at him and shook her head fondly. 'You're just gonna have to reinforce them a bit.' she clarified, returning to their original conversation about the tyres of the motorcycle, 'Put a strengthening charm on them or something.'

Sirius nodded his head, his face falling as if he had just received bad news from a healer about his health or that of a loved one. It was almost equivalent to him if he was to be honest about it. He had built that bike from scratch and being told that he had to make adjustments to it, adjustments necessary to ensure that it was a stable structure, was kind of hard to hear. Still, if it meant that it wouldn't fall apart mid-air then he would do it.

'Do I need to do that before I enchant it to fly?' he asked her.

'Yes.' Lily replied as if it was obvious, 'You need to reinforce the tyres, enchant the petrol tank so that it has an endless supply and won't run out because _then_ you're gonna have to charm that as the 'power source' and then the engine as well so that it will take the new fuel.'

'Sounds simple enough.' Sirius shrugged, ignoring the scoffs that emanated from Remus and James at this point.

'If you get it right.' Lily said, 'If you don't you could blow up the bike.

'Can you do it for me then?' he asked her, giving her all his attention as she was the one who would be able to get his bike to fly without destroying it. She was the one who seemed to know what to do despite the fact that it had been Remus who found the book and Remus who had been reading the instructions over for a couple of hours. She had spent a grand total of five minutes looking at that book and yet had come out with the knowledge that seemed to be escaping Remus' mind. Maybe it was because she was muggleborn and she had grown up around motor vehicles. Maybe it was because she had had an education before Hogwarts and what they had taught her at primary school, some of the science she had learnt about forces, was relevant in this charm succeeding. Or maybe it was because Remus was having an off day and just wasn't registering the information properly. It was just over a week away to the next full moon after all.

'Well I can tell you what to do.' she said, putting her hands on her hips and looking at the bike, 'But I don't _really_ want to do the charm myself.'

'Lils I told you it was legal.' James said, pushing himself up off of the wall with ease and walking over to her, finally giving an input to the conversation which, up until now, had been pretty private between his best mate and his girlfriend.

'I still don't want to take the chance.' Lily replied cautiously. Though, when she had started to date James, she had become a sort of accomplice rule breaker, given the choice she would always opt out of such activities. She was someone who followed the letter of the law, despite what people around her did. And if they saw her to be 'uncool' because she wouldn't risk getting into a bit of trouble with the ministry then that was there problem. As it was though, the marauders were all very accepting if someone didn't want to do something. They wouldn't force them. And if Lily could even just tell them what they needed to do to make the bike fly then that would be enough for them.

'But it's fine.' Sirius exclaimed before clapping James on the shoulder, 'As Jimmy-boy said earlier, it's only illegal if muggles see it fly.'

'Oh, so you're never gonna fly it then?' Lily questioned mockingly, raising her eyebrows in an 'are you kidding me' kind of way.

It was now Sirius who scoffed. 'Course I am.' he said as if the idea of enchanting something to fly and then not using it for that exact purpose was ludicrous. Plus, part of giving his parents the shock of their lives as he rode through Grimmauld Place, (something that he was adamant on doing), relied on the bikes ability to fly.

'How are you gonna stop muggles from seeing it then?' Lily asked cynically, folding her arms.

'I dunno.' Sirius shrugged who looked to Remus for an answer. Remus had nothing for him though and just shrugged back, warming his hands on the blue flame furnace he had set going. Sirius turned back to Lily and thought briefly, taking in a deep thinking breath as he said, 'Confound them?' in suggestion.

'That's actually illegal too you know.' James stated casually with a nod of his head, his hands resting firmly in his pockets.

'And?' Sirius said, really not caring about legality anymore. It had already consumed enough of the conversation already; once by Lily asking about it. Twice by James reciting the whole bloody constitution or at least what felt like it, and then again by Lily refusing to actually do the charm Sirius needed her to, out of fear for the consequences. 'By this stage, let's face it,' he went on to James, 'we're basically master criminals.'

If only Sirius had said is sentence a bit quicker. Because, just before he could complete it, before he could state that he and James were indeed criminals in the eyes of the law without any unwanted spectators listening in, Dumbledore had appeared at the outhouse door, his ears not able to miss the sentence that declared his ex-students as lawbreakers.

James had widened his eyes at Sirius and had shook his head quickly, nodding his head over Sirius shoulder to the figure that had appeared behind him. When Sirius looked at what James was motioning at, his eyes too became wide and he quickly picked up the dust sheet that had previously covered his motorcycle and threw it over it once more. He went to lean on it but slipped slightly in his haste before being able to rest securely on the seat as if it were nothing more than the work surface that Remus was sitting in front of. He cleared his throat loudly and quickly. 'Dumbledore!' he said, slowing his voice down and raising it in pitch slightly. 'What's up man?' he asked, forcing a smile.

Remus laughed and shook his head as he stood up, 'Smooth.' he stage-whispered.

'Subtle.' James echoed.

'Not at all suspicious.' Remus smirked.

Sirius glared at the pair of them, still leaning on the now covered seat of his bike. He pushed himself effortlessly up from where he leant and turned to face Dumbledore, realisation hitting him. He clapped his hands and rubbed them together eagerly. 'Got something for us to do?' he asked excitedly.

He had been waiting for this. They all had. It had been deathly silent since they joined the Order, Dumbledore not needing them for anything thus far and causing all the boys to become rather bored in their empty lives. All of them were eager to do something for the Order but none more so than Sirius. And that was mostly to do with the fact that he knew, he just _knew,_ that it was half of his family who made up the majority in the ranks of Voldemorts psychotic followers. To have the chance to go up against them, knowing that the news would somehow reach his mother and add to the list she had of why he was a disappointment to the Noble House of Black was a very tantalising idea. To be able to duel with his crazy cousin Bellatrix (newly married if the Daily Prophet announcement was to be trusted, feeding the tradition that had been in their family for generations), was a prospect that he just couldn't wait to put into action. Fighting his slightly less crazy cousin Narcissa Malfoy would be fun enough for him too but he doubted that she would be out to duel. From what he understood, she was kept at home by her husband to run the household. But that information was years old now. Still, if she wasn't out then even duelling Lucius Malfoy would be entertainment enough for him. He really couldn't wait or contain his excitement at being able to kick there arses in a full on wizarding duel. He only had one worry through all this though and it was simple: what if he came across his brother? Could he fight Regulus, his baby brother, with as much conviction as the others? He didn't want to dwell on that thought and so pushed it to the back of his mind.

'I require you all at an urgent meeting.' Dumbledore announced serenely, ignoring the hastily covered up bike and instead looking around at his ex-students, resting his eyes on them for a moment each. His gaze landed on Lily last, looking at her for a moment more than the rest until he received a minimal, almost unnoticeable, nod from her that told him she felt they were all ready for this now. After all, it had been her request that had ensured none of them had been thrown into the thick of it just yet. He needed to know that she had overcome her fears and worries of James and the boys doing too much too soon after Jane Potter's death. That nod, that small insignificant action, gave him that confirmation.

'Where?' James asked. He too was excited at the idea of finally being able to do something. Recently he had come to the conclusion that Dumbledore hadn't asked them to do anything because the deed to the Potter mansion that James had now signed over to his name, had not come through yet. Without it, Dumbledore was unable to place the final protective enchantment around the property. And as nobody on the other side would be aware of their participation in the Order until they went out, keeping them out of danger until this enchantment was done would be the only way to keep them thoroughly safe. He had sort of come to terms with it.

'The meeting is being held at Alastor Moody's house.' Dumbledore answered.

James and Sirius' eyes lit up and they looked at each other excitedly. Not only did they get to work with the famed auror, the one that they both sort of idolised in a celebrity sort of way, but they got to visit his house too! They both just knew that his house would be filled with awesome and obscure objects that were used to catch dark wizards. It was like the field trip of a lifetime for them.

'I am here to give you the address.' Dumbledore said to them at large, 'However, I do feel the need to inform you that this is not how you will be told of any other future Order meetings. I cannot always drop everything to inform everyone of an urgent matter. I do hope you understand.'

They all nodded simultaneously, looking up to their old headmaster.

'Well then,' Dumbledore smiled, 'Let us go.'

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**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	21. Chapter 20

**Hey everyone!**** :D**

**Here's the second chapter for today! I hope you enjoy it!**

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**Chapter Twenty**

When James, Sirius, Remus, Peter and Lily arrived at Alastor Moody's house, accompanied by Dumbledore for the urgent Order meeting, they found that his house was buzzing with company. Most of them they had met at Marlene McKinnon's house party. Alastor Moody, as it was his house, was watching them all with careful concentration, as if he expected them all to suddenly throw a rave and trash all of his stuff. They wouldn't of course. In fact, they were doing nothing that might suggest that this was where it would lead. Gideon and Fabian Prewett were entertaining Marlene in the corner whilst she laughed vivaciously at them, snorting through some of their stories about their five nephews, their sister Molly and their brother-in-law Arthur. Benjy Fenwick was speaking to Elphias Doge near the mantelpiece that topped the coal burning fireplace Moody had in his house and, at the opposite end to them, was Dorcas Meadowes; the shy little witch with tremendous power. There were only two people missing that they had already met and they were Sturgis Podmore and Mundungus Fletcher. The rest of them, they hadn't met before. At least not in the capacity of the Order of the Phoenix.

There was Professor Minerva McGonagall, their old Transfiguration Professor and Head of House. They all had mountains of respect for her so, even though they were not her students anymore, none of them doubted that they would ever refer to her as anything other than 'Professor'. She was talking to Hagrid, keeper of grounds and keys at Hogwarts. None of them had really had a lot of interaction with Hagrid thus far. When they were at Hogwarts, once in a while James and Sirius would get told off by him for trying to enter the forbidden forest or, if there was a problem with Fang, his dog, more often than not Sirius would want to find out what it was. They had spoken to him then, but other than that, none of them could really recall a single conversation they had held with him. It was kind of sad as he was lovely. Someone else who they recognised but did not exactly know was Aberforth Dumbledore. He had served them in The Hog's Head a couple of times and had also refused to serve them a couple of times for being too rowdy, something which they denied. He was sort of formidable. The only person they didn't know who was there, was Arabella Figg: a squib. She was over by the mantle talking to Dorcas.

They were greeted with warm smiles when they arrived in the room, Marlene, Gideon and Fabian waving at them from the corner and Benjy Fenwick actually left his conversation with Elphias, (who turned to speak to Dumbledore anyway), to come and greet them personally

'Hey you've returned!' he said, grinning at them all, 'I was beginning to think you'd ditched us all.'

'Well after Marlene's party we just decided we didn't fancy working with an idiot like you so…' Remus joked with him. At Marlene's party the pair of them had struck up a rapport. Benjy Fenwick was one of the few people Remus had met that actually thought his lycanthropy was sort of cool. He hadn't judged him but rather, respected him. And had jokingly asked that if anyone ever pissed him off again, if he could use Remus as a threat towards them. Remus had agreed in good humour.

'And here I thought we were bessie-buds!' Benjy replied, feigning sadness. 'But, you know, in all seriousness, where you been? I mean, I assume your monthly deal kept you away,' (he gestured to Remus), 'but you three! What's that about?' Benjy looked at them all in turn and then his eyes rested on the shorter member of the group. He frowned. 'I don't remember you.' he said shaking his finger at Peter. 'Are you new?'

'Nah he was at the party.' Sirius said, waving Benjy's comment away before ruffling Peter's hair in a brotherly manner, 'He was just too busy passing out in the kitchen.'

It was almost as if you could see the light bulb flash on in Benjy's mind. It was the wrong light bulb though. 'Ahh!' he said with a knowing smile and a wink at Peter, 'You find Marlene's boyfriends firewhisky? Cause I tell you, he hides that stuff well!'

Sirius rolled his eyes and scoffed. 'Like he'd be able to find it.' he said, as if he knew where it was kept which, of course, he didn't. 'Nah. Thingy Doge told him about the injuries and stuff and he wimped out.'

'You mean Elph?' Benjy asked, pointing over his shoulder to where Elphias was speaking excitedly to Dumbledore about a new set of rare mint condition collectable plates he had found of the 1863 Ilkley Quidditch team. 'He does have a thing for the gory details. You'd have never guessed.'

'Don't think it had to be gory for Pete to find it sickening. He's as big a wuss as you get.' James joked, looking to Lily for a laugh but only receiving a stern look and a shake of the head. His laughter faded, his smile dropped and he looked down in almost shame, towards where their hands were fastened together between them.

Benjy laughed at Lily's look but it was almost in confusion. That was until he looked down along James' eyelevel and noticed what he was looking at. He looked up in surprise. 'Are you two together?' he asked them, pointing at both of them as if the group was in any doubt as to who he was referring too.

James looked back up. 'Err yeah?' he answered, looking puzzled.

'Cool. Since when? How long?' Benjy went on. It was completely new information to him. At Marlene's party, apart from when they had been talking to Sturgis Podmore and Dorcas Meadowes, Lily and James hadn't spent much time together. And they hadn't touched each other either, held hands or anything. Nothing had been said about their relationship to anyone. They had become so comfortable in it that, it was just what it was. There was no obvious show.

'For over a year.' Lily said, almost cautiously.

Benjy looked between the two of them in complete shock. 'Really?' he asked them, before turning to Remus and saying, 'Man I have to start paying attention more.' with a laugh.

Remus laughed back. 'You sound like Sirius! He had no idea for ages.'

'Hey it had nothing to do with me not paying attention!' Sirius responded straight away, almost defensively. 'They hid it for three months!'

Remus blinked at him and clapped him on the shoulder. 'And it's good to know that, after a year, you've finally gotten over being left out the loop.'

'Alright you lot let's get this started before we waste any more time!' Moody said, using his crudely carved walking stick to barge through their little circle. He limped away, his fake leg thudding along the floor boards of his property as he walked over to the dining area of the room they were in. He gestured to the small round table that was there. Comfortably, it was able to seat only six people however fourteen chairs had been squashed around it, some sticking out at awkward angles. The chairs were all so mismatched that it looked like either everyone had brought their own or Moody had gone around a load of thrift shops and had just bought what he could find. Some of them were made from splintering wood and others had frilly pink cushions attached to them, tied on by lacy white ribbons. To guess which ones were Moody's was a challenge no one wanted to undertake. So they took to them in silence, not complaining or saying a word.

Dumbledore sat at the side of the table that was almost pressed against the wall. On either side of him sat Elphias Doge and Alastor Moody. In family circles Aberforth Dumbledore would have been the one to sit next to his brother. But they didn't travel in family circles. This was business, and you would be a very lucky soul to ever see the two standing side by side, let alone sitting. So Aberforth was stood at the back of the room, away from the table, keeping a watchful eye on his brother. Peter stood next to him. Sat at the table, next to Elphias, was Minerva McGonagall. Standing behind her, crouching under what was a low ceiling for him, was Hagrid, and sitting next to her was Dorcas Meadowes. Then there was Arabella Figg and the Prewett twins. Going around the table, after them in a slightly small zig-zagged line, sat Benjy Fenwick, Remus Lupin, Lily Evans, and James Potter. Remus and James were slightly behind the other two, further away from the table than they were, but they didn't mind. Next to Lily sat Sirius, comfortable in the amount of room he was taking up, and sat next to him, completing the circle, was Marlene McKinnon.

There was slight chatter as everyone took their seats. Moody was the only one who stayed silent, looking around the table, counting everyone who was there. Dumbledore was having a pleasant conversation with Elphias and McGonagall about the upcoming Christmas holiday and Dorcas Meadowes and Arabella Figg, very good friends, were talking about one of Arabella's female cats which she had been trying to breed with a kneazle. She suspected it had worked and now her cat was pregnant. She was very excited at this. Gideon and Fabian Prewett were talking amongst themselves, discussing whether it might be an idea to go and visit their sister after the meeting and finally swap back the all-in-ones she had had made for her now seventh month old twins with their names on so she could tell which one was which. She had been calling Fred and George by each other's names for three months now. They were deciding whether the joke had run its course. Benjy and Remus struck up their conversation as if they had been friends for years and Lily and James just spoke together as they usually did. Peter was stood awkwardly with Aberforth, looking slightly scared, and Sirius had been listening in on James and Lily's conversation. That was, until Marlene spoke to him.

'Psst.' Marlene whispered.

Sirius turned his head slowly to look at her. He looked wary. 'What?' he asked, his voice lowering in register as hers had in volume.

'Got something for you.' she said, reaching down beside her chair and into her bag.

'Really?' Sirius smiled mischievously, an insinuating tone in his voice. He watched her as she fumbled in her bag, trying to sneak a peek at what she was trying to grab. He had no idea what it was and boy was he surprised when she pressed it into his hand underneath the table.

He looked down into his hands and then looked back at her. She was smiling. He blinked at her. 'Gee.' he said sarcastically, 'Thanks. It's not like I don't have a thousand quills at home.'

Marlene rolled her eyes. 'It's a new Zonko's product you ungrateful git!' she said, holding her hand out for it, 'I'll take it back if you don't want it.'

'No I want it!' Sirius whined, a puppy dog pout forming instantly on his handsome face as he pulled the new quill into his stomach protectively. He opened his hand and looked down at it again, this time with glee. From what he knew about Marlene, her boyfriend worked at Zonko's. When they had all been at hers he had found a mountain of new Zonko's products stacked in her spare room. He had, of course, gone snooping and had come to realise that, not only was she storing some of the more classic Zonko's products, but also some new not-yet-on-the-shelves products. This must be one of them.

'Thought you would!' Marlene grinned, 'They won't be out till next year!'

'Great! But what does it _do_?' Sirius asked again, turning to face her a bit more, his back now to Lily and James. He leant his arm on the back of his chair and held up the quill with his left hand to inspect it. Marlene quickly brought it down with her own hands.

'Don't show it around you bloody idiot!' she said, 'What part of 'not out yet' did you not understand?'

Sirius frowned at her suspiciously, looked to the quill once more and then back to her. He pointed the quill at her. 'Am I meant to have this?' he asked her.

'No.' she shrugged, before grinning wickedly, 'But I thought you might like to test it out for me.'

Sirius laughed. 'Yeah ok.' he nodded, 'So what does it do?'

Marlene frowned, her dark eyebrows pinching themselves together in the middle of her forehead and the beauty mark that was next to her right eye becoming suddenly prominent. She pursed her mauve coloured lips. 'I think…' she began in thought, 'It either forces you to say what you're writing or forces whoever is talking in a ten foot radius to say what you're writing.'

'The last one sounds better.' Sirius commented, twiddling the quill in between his thumb and forefinger. 'You got any parchment?'

Marlene grimaced and shook her head slowly. 'Write on the table.' she suggested innocently.

Sirius looked at the table and shrugged. Sure why not. He had always written on the desks at Hogwarts and nothing particularly bad had happened. The worse thing they could do to him there was give him detention and, even though his old Head of House was present along with his old Headmaster, he knew they couldn't punish him now. It wasn't their table. But it was Moody's and he was far more formidable than either McGonagall or Dumbledore who were only serious and strict when they needed to be. As Sirius started to write on the table, the words he was writing starting to spill out of Lily's mouth as if she had no control on what she was saying, Moody noticed him. Suddenly, a large crudely carved walking stick clattered down on the table next to him, causing him to drop the quill. In literally two seconds flat, the quill was summoned into Moody's waiting hand.

'Don't write on my table boy!' Moody growled at Sirius, capturing the entirety of the room into unwilling spectatorship. Only Marlene looked away, glancing down at her purple painted nails and stroking the varnish with her thumb.

Sirius looked as if the life had been frightened out of him. He quickly nodded his head and then looked down into his lap, avoiding Moody's eye and everyone who was now staring at him. Internally, he cursed Marlene. And she waited until the chatter had bubbled up again before speaking to him once more.

'You owe me a quill.' she said, leaning over to him slightly as she was speaking quietly still.

'Sorry.' Sirius apologised, glancing over at her out of the corner of his eye.

'A not-on-the-shelves-yet quill.' Marlene clarified.

'I know.' Sirius said.

'That I was not supposed to have and stole from my boyfriend.' she pointed out lastly.

Sirius scrunched up his face in slight worry. 'Will he know it's missing?' he asked, finally turning his head to look at her, catching Moody still glaring at him. He tried to ignore it and focus on her.

'Kind of.' she nodded, 'It was the proto type.'

Then Sirius' shame and apologetic state suddenly vanished and he barked a laugh. 'Boy you're in trouble.' he said, successful in avoiding Moody's angry stare.

'Me?' Marlene laughed once, pointing to herself. She lowered her hand and shook her head. 'I'm telling him you nicked it!' she announced to him before thinking better of what she had declared. 'Actually I can't tell him that…'

And that was a dilemma for her. It was a dilemma for anyone in her position too. None of the members of the Order of the Phoenix were to tell anyone outside the group about the society they were in. That was how it stayed a secret. The only exceptions to this rule had been for Fabian and Gideon Prewett whose sister and brother-in-law did know of the groups' existence. But this was only because Dumbledore had initially had them both on his list of potential members. Even though they had turned down the offer, Dumbledore hadn't wiped their memories of the knowledge as he should have done. He trusted them not to tell and so did everyone else. But no one else could know. Of the people in the room, Marlene couldn't tell her boyfriend, Gideon Prewett couldn't tell his muggle girlfriend, McGonagall couldn't tell Elphinstone Urquat, (the man who often proposed to her), Arabella Figg could not tell her husband, (who many thought didn't exist anyway), and Dorcas Meadowes could not tell the man she had been courting with for the best part of nine years. It was hard but they lived with it. Marlene just didn't like to dwell on the fact.

'Maybe you should just nick it back of Moody later?' she shrugged.

'Yeah.' Sirius nodded in momentary agreement before he realised what she was actually saying. 'What? No!' he protested, 'Why should I do that? It's your quill and-'

But he couldn't finish his sentence as he was cut off by a large crack and the appearance of Mundungus Fletcher in the middle of the room next to the round table they were all seated at. Everyone turned to look at their new arrival. His shoulders were up, as if he was alarmed or on guard or something and his brown eyes darted around the people who were looking at him. He relaxed slightly when he went to speak.

'Sorry I'm late.' Mundungus said, bobbing on his heels slightly and looking over his shoulder to the door. 'Didn't really wanna come...'

'Mundungus!' Moody almost shouted at him as he glanced longingly at the exit. 'You sit next to me. I want to keep an eye on you. You. Black.' he continued on, using the same harsh tone he had used on Mundungus on Sirius, 'You can move. Don't want you drawing on my table again. Might look like garbage to you but I've had this table for three years and I'll be damned if you're gonna ruin it. Go on. Up. Mundungus. Sit.'

Sirius reluctantly got up, glaring at Marlene as he did so whilst she smiled innocently in return as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. It was also at this point that she decided to get out a quill and some parchment from her bag. Sirius mouth dropped open and he scowled angrily at her. James, who had heard bits of their conversation and had seen Sirius' face started to laugh silently to himself, only to be stopped by Sirius whacking him over the back of his head as he went to go stand begrudgingly next to Peter, his arms folded in a huff. He continued to stare at Marlene, his eyes narrowed at her in annoyance. She knew he was doing this but ignored him as Mundungus sat down next to her in the vacated seat and spoke to her in hushed tones.

'You don't happen to 'ave any more of yer grandmother's old jewellery do you?' he asked, trying to mask the concern he had in it. He didn't really want her to know that it had gone missing the very night he had bought it off her for what, in price, he would consider a steal, especially as it was all real gold and goblin made. Very rare pieces. He tried to seem confident, fearing she'd be upset if she found out he had lost it all within hours. If she had more though, he was sure he could still make all his money back and almost triple it in profits. He went on. 'It was just so rare see and, after describing some of the pieces to my regular cliental…well I've found there's quite a market for it.'

'Well what happened to the stuff I gave you before?' Marlene asked innocently, smirking discreetly and glancing over to Sirius who was the only one who knew that the reason all of the jewellery Dung had bought had disappeared thanks to a nifty little charm she had placed on it all which sent it straight back to its box at night. She looked back to Mundungus.

'Oh…that's err…' Dung started with a cough, 'All gone. Very popular items, as I said.' he said hurriedly, avoiding her eye, 'So you got any more?'

'I might have.' Marlene nodded before grinning mischievously, 'For a price.'

Mundungus looked annoyingly disappointed at Marlene's want for him to buy the merchandise off of her. He did wish she would just give it to him. If she hadn't caught him sneaking around in her house at her party a few weeks back he would have gotten it all scot free. But now he had to fork out for it. Again.

'Are we all here?' Moody said loudly and gruffly to the group. He looked round and did a quick head count. He seemed satisfied and turned to Dumbledore to start the meeting but, before he could say anything, there was another large crack in the room and Sturgis Podmore appeared as if out of thin air.

'It seems you missed one Alastor.' Dumbledore chuckled, glancing fondly over at Sturgis who grinned in return. His wide blue eyes crinkled and, as he moved towards the table, his straw blonde hair bounced around stiffly.

'Sorry I'm late.' he apologised to the group, dodging around the zig-zag line of Lily, James, Remus and Benjy. 'Had to wait for the fiancée to leave.' he continued on as if he was making conversation to the whole group.

'Ah, so still engaged Sturgis?' Fabian laughed at him as he walked behind his chair.

'And no wedding date in sight we presume?' Gideon continued as Sturgis passed him.

Sturgis laughed once. 'Don't be daft.' he said, grinning at the pair of them as he settled himself into standing behind Dorcas Meadowes. She spoke to him through the back of her head in a motherly voice.

'You're the one being daft Sturgis.' she said, 'I don't know why you don't go ahead with your promise and marry the poor girl.'

Dorcas had always thought that Sturgis' attitude towards the girl he was engaged to was a bit callous. He had spent a minimal amount on the ring he had given her and had only bought it a year and a half into their so-called engagement. He refused to commit to her properly even though she was devoted on him. He didn't seem to care about that however. He didn't want to be married. He didn't want to commitment.

'Nah.' he said with a shrug to her back before turning to speak to Fabian and Gideon again, 'Who wants to be tied down forever?' he asked, searching for their agreement.

Fabian, who was thirty-four and still single, nodded his agreement and gave Sturgis the ok symbol despite missing a couple of fingers on that hand. Gideon, who _was_ in a relationship, took a different approach.

'What the hell was the point of getting engaged?' he asked in bewilderment. He'd never do that to his girlfriend. His sister would probably kill him if he did.

Sturgis shrugged nonchalantly. 'Needed a place to crash.' he said.

'When you've all finished, this is important Order business.' Moody interrupted, bringing the focus of the group back to himself and Dumbledore who was now leaning forwards on the table, his elbows rested gently on the surface and his fingertips pressed together, ready to begin. Everyone shut up immediately at this. Apparently, this was the symbol meaning they were ready to begin.

Dumbledore looked over the rims of his half-moon glasses at the group assembled in front on him, ensuring that they were all paying attention before he began.

'Now,' he said in a pleasantly calm voice, one that had no tell-tale factor that he was about to go on to speak of the dangers in the wizarding world and what they must now do to protect said world from spiralling into chaos. No, his tone of voice suggested that he was about to speak to them about a lovely garden he walked through the other day or something of the sorts. He went on. 'I assume that you are all aware of the circumstances that surrounded the late Minister of Magic's death: after Ava Marsket and her young son Malakai were murdered by Voldemort,' (half the table flinched), 'his way of showing the father of the family what he is capable of, the Minister of Magic refused to cover it up, refused to give into blackmail, refused to give into Voldemort,' (half the table flinched again), 'and for that he was killed. Since then, the new Minister of Magic has indeed been heeding my warnings about the dark forces that would seek to take this world from us and has, per my request, been able to arrange a protection detail for Voldemort's many targets, including the remaining members of the Marsket family. But I do not feel this is enough.'

There was a murmur of agreement around the table. Fabian and Gideon nodded to each other, as did Marlene and Benjy from across the table. Moody was the only one who seemed to carry a different expression. He rolled his eyes.

'That's fine Dumbledore but we know this.' he said, shifting in his seat and placing his walking stick between his legs, holding it with both hands, 'Tell them what they don't know so they can get out of my house. Some of us have work to do you know.'

'Patience Alastor.' Dumbledore replied with a faint smile, using his hand to quell Moody's grumbles. 'There are some people here who do not know everything. I am repeating it for their sakes.'

The room almost simultaneously looked towards James, Remus and Lily who were sat together, a couple glancing over to Sirius and Peter as well. Lily and Remus looked down from the attention whilst James grinned at everyone and bounced slightly in his chair.

'How's it going?' he said to the room, managing to direct an indiscreet wink at Lily who rolled her eyes at him and smothered a bubble of laughter. This was the James who revelled in attention; the arrogant boy from Hogwarts.

Professor McGonagall smiled fondly and shook her head. 'Go on Albus.' she said in a thick Scottish accent, thicker than her ex-student's remembered it.

'Thank you Minerva.' Dumbledore nodded to her before returning to address the entire table. 'Although the Minister of Magic has been able to place protection upon those targets of Voldemort's who possess magic, the ones who do not have been left in serious danger. The auror department cannot track these muggles as the can witches and wizards, and they do not have enough resources to provide a twenty-four hour watch. As this is the case, I believe that it is our duty now to provide this service instead. There are many muggles who had been left as easy prey, most importantly, Dianna Marsket. Due to her being born a squib and living in the muggle world, the auror department cannot provide her with the same protection they are giving her father and sister. _We _must provide this protection or Voldemort will succeed in capturing her.'

'And why does he wanna capture her?' James asked Dumbledore, leaning forwards, his elbows on his knees. The room looked over to him, startled at his interruption. '…Sorry…' he said after a pause, thinking he had spoken out of turn or something. Dumbledore put his mind at rest.

'Do not apologise Mr. Potter.' Dumbledore said, 'Quite simply, the position Dianna Marsket unwittingly finds herself in is useful to Voldemort.'

James nodded his head, being one of the only ones who did not, once again flinch at the mention of the dark wizard's name. Dumbledore was right when he had invited him into the Order: half the people who were already members could not stand to say or even hear 'Voldemort'.

'Why is she useful to him?' Remus asked, jumping on James' questioning band wagon thinking that, whilst the room seemed to have stopped for questions, he might as well get his out now too.

'Dianna Marsket's father, Leighton Marsket, is in a position of power at the Daily Prophet as one of the feature headline editors.' Dumbledore began to explain, 'If Voldemort was to succeed in capturing Miss Marsket, he would be able to gain control of what is printed in the Daily Prophet. He would be able to print lies. Voldemort understands very little about love, seeing it as a weakness rather than a strength, but, from what he does understand, he knows that there is little Leighton Marsket would not do in order to protect his eldest daughter from the fate of his wife and son. If Miss Marsket was captured and threatened, then dark propaganda in the wizarding world would be the consequence. However, due to her situation, her capture would also allow Voldemort to wreak havoc in the muggle world.'

James and Remus shared a look of worry but no one looked as unsettled as Lily by that statement.

'Dianna Marsket is directly linked to the muggle Prime Minister's family.' Dumbledore said, ignoring the worried looks that some of his members were giving each other, 'Through Miss Marsket, Voldemort can reach the muggle Prime Minister. She is, after all, the woman who looks after his grandchildren. That is how she and the Prime Minister's son-in-law, with whom she is having an affair, happened upon each other. Through Dianna, Voldemort can reach the Prime Ministers grandchildren. In very much the same way, Voldemort will use the Prime Minister's love for his grandchildren to manipulate him into creating policies which are not benefitting to the muggle population but, rather to those witches and wizards he deems to be pure-blood. This is what he will most likely do, given the chance. We cannot give him that chance. We must prevent him from nearing Dianna Marsket for he believes she is the key to undoing both worlds. It is down to us to protect her. For now, her safety is our main priority.'

'Why only for now?' Sirius piped in from the corner where he stood with his arms still folded huffily, shooting furtive glances at Marlene who was busy taking notes of what Dumbledore was saying.

'Merlin's beard Albus!' Moody growled, briefly glancing over at Sirius in annoyance for asking another question. 'All these questions! We don't have time for this.'

'Alastor they have every right to ask questions about what they will be doing.' Dumbledore spoke calmly.

'But they don't know what they're bloody doing yet.' Moody said in annoyance, 'They keep asking questions and stopping us from getting to the task at hand.'

'It is fine Alastor.' Dumbledore assured him with a pointed nod of his head.

Moody shook his head, shot another glare at Sirius with whom he was still mad at for writing on his table, and sat back defeated in his chair.

There was a pause. Sirius repeated his question. 'So why is it only for now?'

Dumbledore directed his answer to Sirius alone. 'Mr Black,' he said, 'Voldemort is not a stupid man. He is very calculating and understands that he has limited opportunities to get a foothold in the muggle world, a foothold that will allow him what he believes to be complete control. The situation surrounding Miss Marsket is but one of these opportunities. Another one will confront him next year, I am told, when the muggle world is open to political change.'

'Come again?' Sirius asked with a confused frown.

'The general election.' Lily stated. The room turned to her, intrigued. She continued on, reciting what she knew about such events from things her parents told her. 'The general election is where different political parties campaign for votes from the general public. The party with the majority of the votes is the one that rises to power. It's one of the only times when we can get a completely new Prime Minister.'

'Quite right Miss Evans, as I understand it.' Dumbledore said, nodding his head in praise at her. He continued on then to speak to the rest of the group. 'When the time comes, the candidates who are planning to run to be the next muggle Prime Minister will be in danger. They may be cursed, killed or replaced by someone who Voldemort is sure will do his bidding. If Voldemort manages to succeed in placing someone in the position of muggle Prime Minister, he will have power in their world. However, this is something that we do not need to worry about at this time. It will not be until early next year when, I am sure, this situation will arise. For now, we must focus our efforts into ensuring Miss Marsket is not in harm's way. For if he manages to capture her, we needn't worry at all about muggle Prime Minister candidates. He will have already found his way into the muggle world.'

'Well that's all lovely to know but will you tell them what they actually have to do?' Moody said, leaning forwards in his chair. 'I have things to do you know.'

'So you keep saying Alastor.' McGonagall replied with a tight smile.

Dumbledore place his fingertips together and took a breath, finally continuing on with what he wanted from them all. 'We must place a twenty-four hour guard on Miss Marsket. She cannot be left unattended if we are to succeed in keeping her from Voldemort's grasp. I would like you all to commit a part of your time into watching her, if it is possible. I do realise some of you have jobs and it will not be feasible for you to take certain shifts but I do believe we can reach some sort of schedule if I know what these provisions are.' he finished, ending in an open question and looking around the room for objections or special requirements. It was only McGonagall that answered him.

'Well there's the obvious Albus,' she said briskly, going around the table, from old to young, 'Alastor has work with the auror department. I myself have my work at Hogwarts as do you and Hagrid. Mr. Podmore is working at the Ministry Press. Arabella has her…cat business. Aberforth has the Hogs Head, Mr Fenwick is working at Flourish and Blott's and Miss McKinnon is working in the Department of Mysteries archives. Then I do believe that Mr Pettigrew is currently employed by the Magical Menagerie, Miss Evans is a student of St Mungo's healer training programme and Mr Potter and Mr Black are students of the Ministry's auror training programme. After that, I do believe that the only other provision we should consider is that of Mr Lupin's condition.'

Everyone's eyes turned to Remus who looked down in his lap only to be clapped on either shoulder in reassuring support by both James and Benjy.

McGonagall ignored this and continued. 'Everyone else should be free as a bird.' she finished, looking around the room for confirmation that this was the case.

James and Sirius exchanged awkward looks before turning back to the table. It was James who spoke up. 'Actually me and Sirius quit our training programme Professor.' he said cautiously.

McGonagall looked between the two of them with mild disappointment. 'And why did you do that?' she asked them, almost resuming her role of Head of house, 'Was it not both of your ambitions to become aurors?'

'Well yeah but…' James started, avoiding McGonagall's disappointed look, running a hand through his hair nervously.

'It sucked.' Sirius finished for him bluntly, receiving small titters from around the room, 'We weren't doing anything. And the teacher, Williamson, hated us.'

'Is that any reason to quit?' McGonagall asked disapprovingly, giving the pair of them stern expressions.

Sirius didn't flinch. 'Yes.' he said, speaking just as bluntly as he had before. 'It is.'

McGonagall shook her head as Moody piped in, almost gunning for Sirius as he had drawn on his table, a grudge he would hold.

'Course she didn't like you!' he said gruffly, 'Told me you were a nightmare. And I can believe it. But she was actually quite disappointed that Potter quit. Said he had promise.'

James glanced around with a smug expression on his face. Of course he had promise. It was just her fault she hadn't been able to bring it out in him in the time she had had him under her tutorship. At least, he believed it was her fault and you wouldn't convince him otherwise.

'No matter.' Dumbledore said, bringing the meeting to a head. 'I will, of course, work around this. But right now, I need to assign the first few watches.'

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**Thanks for reading! (I hope those chapters didn't bore you. They're kind of easy going and relaxed for a change :p)**

**Review if you want!**

**The next update will be on the 12th August. Please don't hate me for the long gap but I have a lot of family birthdays at the beginning of August and, apparently, it's considered rude to be on your laptop when you're at a family gathering. Weird right?**

**Galindaba**


	22. Chapter 21

**Hey everyone!**** :D**

**Here's an early update for you, you lucky sods! :)**

****Thank you to my reviewers! I love that you review! :)****

**DogO:**** Hope this update is in time for you before you go to camp! :) Hope you have a good time! Never been to camp myself but I hear it's fun! And to answer your question, yes I did create the sorting hat songs in Five Minutes. They're not the best but shmeh. They did their purpose. Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**Clozza: I hope this is a good what happens next! Took me a while to get this chapter done so I hope it's not boring! Thanks for your review! :) Always makes my day. Hope you had a good birthday by the way! :)**

**Imagionista:** **I love James and Lily interaction too! :) To answer your suggestion about James taking care of Lily, I have actually planned a moment where he does and a couple more after that. And, there is something that happens which means the other marauder, Sirius and Remus mostly, get to take care of Lily too which I'm really looking forwards to writing. I've planned it all but it's tricky so...yeah. :) Hope you stick around for that!**

**So here's Chapter Twenty-One I hope you enjoy it!**

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**Chapter Twenty-One**

Straight after the Order meeting, Gideon and Fabian Prewett took the first watch of Dianna Marsket. Dumbledore gave them her address and they waited there, undercover, until she returned home. After she did, she was placed under twenty-four hour watch. Dumbledore gave strict instructions that she was not to be left unattended for, if she was, they could lose her whereabouts. He was determined not to let that happen. For hours, Gideon and Fabian had to stand outside her house under the cover of nightfall and stare at her door. It was boring to them and soon, to conquer their boredom but to continue with their detail, they went for a stroll around her property. On their trails, they came across something that they believed would aid Dumbledore's aim to keep her under watch at all times. Through the window of her kitchen, Fabian had noticed a small black diary on the counter and had quickly summoned it to him, magically opening to window slightly to allow it to flow through. He took it back to his brother and the pair of them went through it, discovering it to be a wealth of information, giving dates and times of where Dianna would be for the next month. It was an events diary. In the time they had left on their protection duty, they copied out the diary, page by page, into a similar looking book using magic. Just before sunrise, before they were to be relieved of duty, they had finished it and stealthily put the original back into Dianna's house as if nothing had ever happened. That events diary would be the key to finding Miss Marsket's whereabouts should any of them lose her.

When morning came and Elphias Doge and Mundungus Fletcher arrived to pick up the detail, Elphias bright eyed and bushy tailed and Mundungus complaining that it was too early and he was losing half a day's work, they passed on the events diary and explained what it was. Elphias thanked them happily, claiming that it would be a tremendous help to the whole Order. He was busy congratulating the boys when Mundungus tried to sneak away. Luckily, Gideon had noticed Mundungus try to sidle away and had dragged him back by the ear. When Mundungus went on to complain that watching the girl was far more danger than it was worth, Gideon had told him to put a sock in it. He quelled Mundungus' unwilling attitude to help by informing him that he only had to be there until that afternoon, for just a brief few hours, before Marlene McKinnon, Benjy Fenwick, Remus Lupin and James Potter would come to take over. Begrudgingly, Mundungus shut up and waited out his time on protection duty. Gideon and Fabian left Elphias to deal with him during this time.

The time dragged but, eventually, after following Dianna Marsket to a high end hotel in central London, it was time for Mundungus and Elphias to leave the detail. In the afternoon, the four people meant for Mundungus and Elphias' replacements, met the pair of them both outside of that very same hotel in central London. As soon as Mundungus had seen the four of them approach them in the busy street, he scurried off down an alley way and disapparated almost instantly, leaving Elphias Doge to give them the low down on what had happened so far (which was nothing) and to give them the events diary. He informed them of the reason why Dianna had made her way to this hotel, Marlene reading the reason in the diary as he spoke, and the proceeded to follow Mundungus down into that alley way and disapparating too. He was now leaving the safety of Dianna Marsket in the capable hands of the four newcomers. The sheer number of them was something James questioned as soon as Elphias had left them.

'So, why does there have to be four of us when there was only two of them?' he asked Marlene out of curiosity. It was odd to him really. If he didn't need to be there as Marlene and Benjy were, then why was he? He had cancelled an appointment at the Ministry to help transfer the Potter possessions into his name to be there that afternoon, something he had to do because he couldn't find his mother's will. He hoped it hadn't been in vain.

'Because you're new.' Marlene shrugged, still scanning the diary Elphias had handed her. She nodded her head, mostly to herself, and then quickly fumbled for a quill in her bag. She handed it to Benjy who dutifully held it until she also found parchment and had taken it back, ready to write. She began constructing a strategy based around Dianna's daily engagements, the ones she had just been perusing at leisure.

'So what?' James countered, not liking the idea that, as a relatively new member of the Order, he would be in a probationary role. He folded his arms and went on to mutter, 'Don't see why that matters.'

'Maybe Dumbledore doesn't trust you to handle this on your own just yet.' Benjy shrugged, not particularly paying attention to James and instead looking over Marlene's shoulder to see the plan she was writing down for their six hour watch. He smirked to himself, liking what she had devised for them all.

'He asked us to join the Order. Why would Dumbledore not trust us?' James asked Remus who had stood by as a quiet bystander, his hands in his new black trousers, ones James had left for him in a bag on his bed the night before after his own had mysteriously been used as soft bedding for Sox, James' owl, to go to when she needed a rest.

Remus shrugged in very much the same way Benjy had. He was pulling at the new cotton in his trousers. 'Not like he doesn't have reason.' he pondered, his eyes looking up in remembrance, 'We have locked him in his office before. And broken into it come to think of it…'

'Why did you break into Dumbledore's office?' Benjy asked them, looking away from Marlene's scribbles now to talk to Remus with an interested frown. It was James who answered though.

'It was my birthday.' he said with a grin. He loved his birthday.

Marlene looked up from what she was writing. It almost seemed as if she was going to comment on James' unconventional birthday parties but as she smiled at the two boys devilishly, they strongly suspected that it was something else entirely. She looked as if she had something up her sleeve. 'Ready to keep an eye on Miss Marsket?' she asked them.

She had spoken with such a tone that both James and Remus, even though they did not know her too well, knew to be wary of what she had in mind for them. The pair of them exchanged a worried look, wordlessly conversing about whether to ask what exactly Marlene had in mind. In the end, neither had the balls to do so and so, both ended up nodding in confirmation to her.

'Perfect.' she stated simply, that devilish smile still playing around her lips as she beckoned them to follow her.

Cautiously, they allowed Marlene to lead the down the street, leaving Dianna Marsket unaccompanied inside the hotel lobby. James and Remus enquired as to whether this was a good idea or not, considering that their assignment was clearly to not leave the girl unattended, but Marlene just waved away their concerns and told them to keep up with her. She was walking rather fast. So they sped up, almost jogging to keep her pace and along with Benjy, they followed her round the street and into a small back alley where the service entrance to the hotel was located. She stopped suddenly when they reached the door and, with no explanation as to why, held up her hand for them to stop, telling them all to wait where they were. Remus and James were a still a bit confused but they did what they were told. They had asked Benjy, who knew what she was doing, what this was all about but he refused to tell them. So, instead, they stood for twenty-five minutes in wonderment, making light conversation with Benjy and explaining to him about the birthday party they had thrown in Dumbledore's office for James a few years back. They were just getting to the part where they had accidently broken the headmasters antique model of the solar system, when the service door opened and Marlene whistled to them, calling them all inside as if they were dogs. They went to her as if they were.

When they went into the hotel, they followed Marlene down a narrow hallway, past a young girl in a maid's outfit that she had clearly stunned to get past without suspicion, and into a small staff room. It was painted a muddy cream. There were grey lockers in the corner, one of which was open wide. Next to them was a fridge which was buzzing as if it was nearing its last days, and in front of it, a small table that seated four. The table had a neatly folded up uniform on it. The only unusual thing about this room though, even to witches and wizards, were the two unconscious young lads sat against the wall, falling into each other's laps. They were both stripped down to their underwear and James and Remus exchanged worried looks once more. But they said nothing, expecting Marlene to explain which she started to do by picking up the uniform on the table. She gave it to James.

'Err…thanks?' he said, looking back to Remus who returned a puzzled look. 'What's this for?'

'I have no idea.' Remus muttered back to him, 'Fancy dress day at the Order?'

'Well in that case I have a few suggestions…' James said with a grimace, picking up one of the garments of clothing he had been handed from the pile and studying it with slight disgust. It had a small brown stain on it. James dreaded to think what it was.

At this point in time, Remus was also handed a uniform, a different one to what James had been given, but he too looked at it with distaste. It was a dull red.

'Change into them.' Marlene grinned, pulling out a seat at the staff table and sitting down, crossing her legs and beginning to move her spider-web shoe in circles absentmindedly.

Remus and James looked down at the costumes they had been given to change into, clothes which they didn't particularly like. Remus was often given clothes to wear, given to him by James whether he asked for them or not and forced to wear them because, steadily, one by one, all his items of clothing were getting 'accidentally' destroyed. However, anything James had given him was nice and he was comfortable wearing them, the clothes not being too flashy. Marlene had given him a red uniform with gold and black trimmings. It was a bit too loud for his taste. Still, along with James, who was used to clean cut, freshly laundered, new and smart clothing, changed begrudgingly into them there in the staff room.

Marlene watched them do so with an amused smile not giving them the courtesy of looking away. James didn't mind of course, knowing his body was well toned from years of Quidditch and was right now, the best it was ever going to be. He was used to people ogling him in this way from dressing in the Quidditch changing rooms at Hogwarts. The girls on his team were always stealing furtive glances at him when they weren't looking at Sirius. And if he had ever gone down into the Gryffindor common room in just pyjama bottoms which he had done a few times in later years, girls in there had stared at him too. It didn't matter to him though. He didn't mind. Remus, however, did.

Remus' body, though slim, was covered in scars from his transformations at the full moon. He hated them and, by extension, himself. He was embarrassed and uncomfortable but he got on with it anyway. He had never been in this state of undress, stripping down to his boxers, in front of anyone. Of course, thanks to the living quarters they had shared at Hogwarts, he had been undressed like this in front of his friends but that was different. Besides, it had taken him a while to become comfortable changing in their communal dormitory anyway, choosing instead to change in the bathroom for the first few years. He had slowly had to stop that though as Sirius became more and more obsessed with having his hair just so. He had started taking forever in the bathroom, checking himself out in the mirror. To change in there soon wasn't feasible anymore. Still, his friends hadn't judged him for his torn up body. They didn't care and had taken measures themselves to stop it getting any worse, to stop him attacking himself during the full moon. But he couldn't say the same about Marlene or even Benjy. He changed uncomfortably in front of them and, even though he hated the uniform he was given, he felt relieved when it was on.

'You look stupid.' James said bluntly. He had finished changing too know and, upon standing up straight and looking to Remus he laughed, poking the hat that his friend had put on. 'Look what's on your head!'

'It's a hat.' Remus said, turning and looking James up and down. 'And are you really commenting how I look right now?' he went on with a smiling chuckle.

'I'm fit.' James stated arrogantly, 'I can pull anything off.'

'Dude that doesn't even _fit_ you.' Remus laughed.

James shrugged and tugged at the black and white small checkered waistcoat he had put on. It was about three sizes too big for him and hung off his body as if he were nothing more than a coat hanger. He looked scrawny and specky but he still thought he looked great. 'The baggy look suits me.' he said nonchalantly.

'It looks like you're being eaten alive by clothes to me.' Remus said.

'Like you're one to talk!' James responded, looking at Remus' clothes with derision.

'My clothes fit.' Remus said.

'Yeah but look at that stupid hat!' James laughed, going to poke it again with a laugh only to have his hand slapped down by Marlene.

'Focus you two!' she said, snapping into serious mode. It was something she could do with ease but, so could most of the Order. They could be laughing and having a good natured joke one minute but, when it came down to it, the focus was impenetrable. 'We have a mission.'

She reached into her bag again, fumbling around in it as if it held far more than it seemed to, and eventually pulled out a small leather hip flask. She motioned to Benjy, who thus far, had been leaning against the wall in a relaxed state, to get something. Remus and James watched as he reached into the open locker and produced two glasses, handing them both to Marlene who set them down on the little table. She unscrewed the cap of the hipflask and slowly poured the contents of it into both glasses, making sure there was an equal amount of liquid in both of them before putting the cap back on and shoving it back in her bag.

'Polyjuice potion.' she explained, handing James and Remus a glass each.

'What?' Remus asked.

Marlene smiled that mischievous smile again and let out a small laugh at her plan as if it were pure evil. It wasn't of course. It was a good plan. In theory anyway. 'Basically,' Marlene started, 'from what it says in her diary, she has four hours blocked out to meet with Peter Jay alone. He's the guy she's having an affair with. There were two side notes saying 'one o'clock reservation, usual table', and 'room thirty-seven'.'

'Okay…' James said cautiously, looking at the awful coloured liquid that Marlene had filled his glass with. He glanced over to Benjy who just raised his eyebrows amusedly at him.

'I looked on the rota the muggles had for the waiting staff and the waiter for table thirty-five to thirty-nine is this handsome chappy down here.' she said, turning around to gesture carelessly at the larger of the two boys. She pointed to the other boy. 'He is a bell hop and, according to the maid we passed in the hallway, he is the one who usually attends to Dianna and Peter when they come here.'

'Basically,' Benjy began, giving his input now as it was the point in the plan where the important detail of the plan was being announced. He only ever gave his input in conversations such as these when it was to say the important facts or to sum up what had been said. This was one of these moments. 'You're going to be them.' he finished off.

'Can I get a well done for captain obvious?' Remus smirked, raising his eyebrows at Benjy. Of course they were going to become them! It was clearly the plan. Polyjuice potion plus two unconscious lads could only mean one thing: disguise. Still, Benjy laughed at his comment. Remus ignored it though and continued to express his worries about this plan of Marlene's. 'We have no idea how to be them.' he stated.

'Well you'd better figure it out then, hey?' Marlene said.

'We're gonna make these guys lose their jobs.' Remus said as if Marlene really wasn't getting what the consequences of her plan was. And in all honesty, she really wasn't.

'And?' Marlene shrugged, not getting the problem.

Remus looked to James as if he should be worried or mad about this plan too but he was just smirking at him instead, that usual mischief in his eyes that he had whenever they were making plans to pull pranks at Hogwarts.

'Bet I get fired before you do.' he said as if it was his master plan.

'Of course you will.' Remus said with slight exasperation, 'You're working first.'

James blinked. 'That mean you don't wanna bet?'

Marlene clapped her hands in their faces. 'Focus guys!' she said. She gave them both a stern look, receiving apologetic ones back in return. Then she turned around and walked over to the unconscious boys pulling out a few hairs from their scalps. She made sure to keep them in separate hands, and walked the minimal distance back to James and Remus. Slowly, she dropped the hairs into their glasses.

The liquid bubbled as soon as the hair fell atop it, almost seeming as if it had been left on the boil. As it bubbled away, the colour started to change. The glass James was holding faded from the icky brown colour to a similarly gross murky yellow-green. The Polyjuice potion still kept its mud-like consistency though, much to James' displeasure. He looked towards Remus' glass with slight envy as it had turned a similar colour to a weak berry juice. It looked like a deliciously thick smoothie.

'I hate you.' James said.

Remus held up his glass to James and downed it all in one. When he had swallowed the entire contents he took the glass away from his lips and pulled a disgusted face. 'Ugh, don't.' he replied to James' comment, 'That tastes vile.'

James gave a chuckle before drinking his awful looking Polyjuice potion, complete with human hair and a taste of limes. He too pulled a disgusted face when he had finished, the potion being very sour which didn't say much for the person he was turning into.

Together, the boys slowly transformed from Remus and James to identical copies of the boys lying unconscious at the opposite side of the room. Their skin bubbled, looking as though there were millions of tiny little bugs trying to make their way out of their systems. Remus' hair grew to just past his ears and James' hair retreated into his head turning lighter in colour. Also, his glasses soon became obsolete and useless to him as his vision began to correct itself. Their insides burned as the potion began to change their systems and sizes, James expanding a few sizes larger and Remus shooting up a few inches taller. It was a couple minutes before their transformations were complete.

James blinked and took his glasses off, slipping them into the pocket of the apron he was wearing. He looked around the room and blinked again. 'Wow.' he said, taking it all in, 'So this is what it's like to have perfect vision? Gotta say I don't hate it.'

'Ok.' Marlene said, ignoring James' comment about his visual impairment and jumping back into that serious mode again, the one she had had earlier when she first told them the main part of her plan. Aware that it was now time to get down to business, Remus and James listened intently.

'Potter.' she said, turning to James. 'You're up first. The person who you are now is called Marcus Santiago. In the reservation book that I looked at, he apparently is the one who covers tables eleven through fifteen and Dianna and Peter are at table fourteen. You don't have to worry about dealing with anyone else because I changed all the reservations in the diary so that no one is booked onto any of the other tables in your section. And to make sure those tables aren't given away at any point during your shift, I have made a few of my own reservations in the diary.'

'What do you mean?' James asked, going to run a hand through his hair but realising that it was now rather short and he was unable to do so.

'I've written down a few celebrities so it looks like they booked those tables.' she smiled as if she had been extremely clever. 'It's the same everywhere. Like if Madam Puddifoot's knows Blodwyn Bludd is gonna visit Hogsmeade she reserves a table for him and doesn't let anyone sit there, even if he doesn't show up. So I've put people like him and Bathilda Bagshot and Celestina Warbeck in there.'

'Shouldn't it have been muggle celebrities you put in the diary?' James asked with concern. Nobody in the muggle world was going to give two hoots if Celestina Warbeck had a reservation at this hotel. Nobody would know her so it was highly unlikely, if someone else of a similar prestige in the muggle world came in and demanded a table, that they would keep it for some singer they'd never heard of.

'Well I didn't know any muggle celebrities.' Marlene said stiffly, almost stomping down one of her spider web boot as if annoyed that James wasn't marvelling at the brilliance of her plan, one she had formulated to help him, but was instead picking holes in it.

James shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. 'Gene Wilder?' he suggested.

Marlene looked to Benjy in confusion and then to Remus who was looking at James with a similar level of befuddlement.

'Who?' Benjy asked.

'He played Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.' James said.

Benjy began to snigger like an immature teenage boy instead of the twenty-four year old lad he actually was. 'Willy.' he said through his chuckles but, upon noticing the inhabitants of the room all looking at him with exasperation he coughed uncomfortably and tried to rectify the situation by asking James, 'What's that? How do you know?'

'It's a film.' James said non-committedly, 'It's Lily's favourite.'

Marlene rolled her eyes. 'Ok then,' she said, 'when you're out there you can replace all the names I've written in with muggle stars okay? After that all you've got to do is bring Dianna and Peter anything they ask for. Do whatever they want and don't take you're focus off of them. We clear?'

James nodded and Marlene moved on.

'Lupin.' she said, turning to him now, 'You are Gary Andrews; a bellhop. It's your job to take them up to their room when they've finished eating and offer them anything they need. When they're eating, you're to stand at the door and wait for them. When you've taken them to their room, you do the same. Stand outside their door and guard it. Potter will join you up there.'

'Where will you two be?' Remus asked her, gesturing to herself and Benjy.

'We're going to be making sure you do your jobs properly.' Marlene said, returning to that devilish smile, the one she seemed to be able to switch on and off whenever she wanted. It was also the one which made her seem like she was up to something.

'Meaning?' James asked.

'We're gonna eat at the restaurant and then go and relax in the guest lounge.' Benjy grinned. This was why he had been so happy about Marlene's plan when he had seen it earlier. It had the two 'newbies' doing all the work whilst he and Marlene had lunch and kicked back.

'How's that fair?' James asked, looking to Remus as if this suggestion was absurd.

'Aww.' Marlene cooed. 'Do you feel like we're taking advantage of having you on this mission with us?'

Remus turned to James who was still looking at him. They turned back to Marlene together. 'Yes.' they said in unison.

'Good.' Marlene grinned, 'Let's get to work.'

They exited the staff room and split up. James and Remus went left and Marlene and Benjy went right. James and Remus, as Marcus and Gary, went down the corridor, past the knocked out maid, and into the cubbyhole of a waiter's station which led to the main restaurant. Here they discussed the plan again, giving each other a quick recap to make sure that they both know what they were doing. They didn't want to screw this up. When they were both satisfied that the other was completely aware of their role, they both exited the station, going through the door into a glamorously decorated dining area. It was decorated with festivity, it being so close to Christmas, and was brimming with joyous patrons. But Remus and James didn't have time to admire this or dwell on it. They had work to do. So Remus made his way to the front of the restaurant and James followed, stopping short of him at the stand with the reservation book on it.

Quickly, remembering countless conversations with Lily about celebrities in the world she had grown up in, James opened the book and changed the names that Marlene had written in there with a swift discreet wave of his wand. Now there were names in there such as Gene Wilder and Jean Simmons. He hoped that it wasn't too far-fetched, these people booking into this hotel, for he really didn't know if this was the type of place they would frequent or if they were even in the country. Still, it was the only option he had for he didn't have time for anyone else but Dianna and Peter. And he didn't even know if he could do that. He'd never had a job before. He didn't know the first thing about it.

As it turned out, he was an awful waiter. When Dianna and Peter had approached the maître d stand and had requested that they be shown to their table, he had taken them to the wrong one. Luckily, Dianna and Peter frequented this restaurant and kindly corrected him that the table they had requested was the one three tables over. James apologised, and escorted them to that one instead. Then he had hovered, not knowing what to do. He had looked over to Marlene and Benjy, (who were six tables away), for help at that point. They simply held up their menu's as a guideline of what he should be doing. James then went to get menus for the couple, as instructed, but couldn't find them. He ended up sidling up to Marlene and Benjy, nicking the menu's they had and taking them over to Dianna and Peter.

Whilst they were trying to make their decisions of what they wanted to order James hovered, not taking their hints to leave when they said they'd need a minute to think about it. He just nodded in understanding and told them that he wasn't surprised because there was a lot of food listed there. When they had asked him what the soup of the day was for the starter, he made it up. When they had asked what the fish was, he said dead. And when they had asked what wine he would recommend, he simply said red. They weren't best pleased and yet, still put in an order with him for two salmon risottos. The only problem was, James had no idea how to put an order into the kitchen. Instead he resorted to stealing two ready-made plates of something which he believed resembled a risotto and took it over to the couple. They told him that it was not what they had order but James just replied with a simple answer. That he thought these meals looked good and they should be grateful that he brought them anything in the first place. Unable to contend with James' incompetence any longer, Peter and Dianna cut their meal short, refusing to pay, and walked over to Remus asking to be escorted to their room.

Remus did so happily, taking the pair to the elevator in the main lobby, (which too was decorated festively), and pressing the button in the elevator that meant they would be taken up to the third floor. When the doors had opened though, Remus realised that this was not the floor he needed. He had underestimated the sheer size of the hotel and had to apologise profusely to Dianna and Peter for pressing the wrong button. He corrected himself and pressed the button for the first floor instead, riding the lift down with them and exiting when the doors had opened. Following the arrows on the wooden plaques posted opposite the elevator, Remus led the couple down a couple of corridors until they arrived outside room thirty-seven. He felt relieved when they arrived but had not realised his mistake until Peter asked him whether he was going to open the door for them or not. Remus, again, apologised, and had to make his way back down to the lobby, go behind the counter and take the key for the room off of the hook on the board behind the desk. When he had it, he went back up to the first floor, found Peter and Dianna still standing outside of their room, and let them in with a small nod of his head. As they closed it in his face, he distinctly heard them mutter to each other about the bad service today. Remus hung his head in shame.

Moments later, James, (looking like himself again and not like Marcus Santiago), jogged up to him.

'Marlene and Benjy are in the guest lounge now.' he said, putting his glasses back on to enable him to see. He felt so much more himself when he had. 'Said to summon Marlene's quill if something happens as a signal.' he went on to inform him before asking, 'How'd you do?'

'I forgot their key and took them to the wrong floor at first.' Remus replied, 'You?'

'Forgot the menus and said the fish was dead.' he nodded, almost thoughtfully, 'Think we've successfully gotten these poor blokes fired.

Remus nodded in return.

Two hours and one transformation back into Remus' own self later, the pair of them were still waiting outside Dianna and Peter's room, bored out of their minds. Remus had slid down the wall and was leaning against it, his legs open, and twirling his wand in his hands. James was leant against the wall too but stood up in his usual position; legs crossed and arms folded. He head was tipped back against the wall and he was tapping his wand in thin air. He sighed.

'How long are we meant to stay here and wait?' he asked Remus.

Remus also sighed, leaning his own head back against the wall and turning it to look up at James. 'As long as it takes them to finish.' he said in a bored voice.

'Ugh.' James said, pushing himself off of the wall smoothly and beginning to pace slowly in front of the door, looking at it with a slightly revolted expression. He and Remus had been there for hours now. They knew exactly what the couple was doing it that room. The walls weren't exactly sound proof. He stopped when they heard a particularly loud moan from Dianna Marsket. He looked down to Remus. 'They can't still be having sex.' he said, 'No one can have sex for that long.'

'Dunno.' Remus shrugged uninterestedly, 'Reckon you and Lily could give them a run for their money.'

James stopped dead and looked down the corridor. 'Shut up Moony.' he said quietly.

'Just saying.' Remus said, 'You two disappear for hours and sometimes you forget to soundproof the room you're in and-'

'No shut up.' James whispered tensely, raising his wand in alert.

'What?' Remus said, scrambling to his feet and standing next to James, looking at where he was looking.

'Send the signal to Marlene.' James replied, 'There's death eaters here.'

Remus sent the signal to Marlene and, within moments, what James was saying came to light. He had seen someone in a dark robe and a hooded mask pass by the corridor they were in, sweeping down the hall way in search of the room. In realising they had made a mistake and gone too far, the death eater walked back and came face to face with James and Remus in the corridor. They heard the man chuckle at them, then raise the sleeve on his left arm. Remus was able to stun him but not before he had pressed his wand to the dark mark he had tattooed on his forearm, summoning more death eaters to that very spot.

Everything happened in subsequent moments. Three death eaters arrived with separate pops of apparition, surrounding James and Remus. They began to duel with the three of them, their backs to the door Dianna and Peter were still fornicating in, protecting them though they would never know. Two more death eaters arrived within seconds as if Dianna's final scream of ecstasy was a homing beacon to them. Remus and James were having trouble enough defending themselves against the three of them who advanced with jaunted heavy movements but whose charms and curses were powerful enough to knock you backwards. Fast with reflexes, James and Remus could defend and deflect curse after curse but had no reprise to send their own out. They were being battered down, worn out, and the odds of them making out of there unharmed only improved when Marlene and Benjy appeared as if from nowhere. Together, they managed to knock out the two new death eaters that had joined the party.

The four Order members duelled fiercely with the three remaining death eaters, the other three lying unconscious on the floor. They suddenly found themselves with the advantage and pushed the opposing force down the corridor and away from Dianna's room. It was only when they reached a beamed arch that their escape was in deal though. The three death eaters threw out curse after curse but, being outnumbered by one, gave a vantage point to the Order. Benjy was able to throw a curse up at the ceiling beam that was above the gap the opposing forces were separated by, sending it thudding down to the floor, the ceiling crumbling down in pieces atop it and filling the air with a cloaking dust. It gave them thirty seconds. Thirty seconds to race back up the hallway. Thirty seconds to burst into Dianna and Peter's room and stun them into stillness. And thirty seconds for Marlene to tell Remus and James to get their quarry out of the hotel and back to Dianna's house, place protective enchantments around her property and wipe hers and Peter's minds of the events that had just happened. It was only thirty seconds until the death eaters had followed them down the hallway and into room thirty-seven to continue the duel with Marlene and Benjy. Remus and James disapparated with their charges, getting them to safety. They wouldn't know the outcome of the duel until later.

* * *

'So how was it?' Sirius asked, bouncing like a puppy, eager for more news of Remus' and James' Order detail. He wasn't scheduled in to take the watch until the next morning. He was partnered with Peter and the pair of them would undertake the assignment with Dorcas Meadowes and Sturgis Podmore.

'Haven't you been listening?' Remus said as the three of them walked through the Potter mansion, from room to room, on their way to the kitchen. Remus was talking over his shoulder to Sirius. 'We sucked at the jobs we had, we spent two hours listening to two middle aged people doing it and we were attacked by death eaters. It wasn't a walk in the park.'

'Still, you got to _do_ something!' Sirius complained, hating that he had been left out of it all. He really wished he hadn't been standing next to Peter when Dumbledore assigned pairs. He wished he had been able to stay sat where he was because then he would have been partnered with Lily instead. But thanks to Marlene, Moody had kicked him off of the table and, seeing as everyone in the Order already had standard mission partners, Peter was the only one left for him.

He envied James really. He had two partners thanks to the fact that Lily had the healer training programme and Remus had lycanthropy. They had both had extenuating circumstances that meant they would, at times, be unable to go on assignments so Dumbledore's solution was to put them into an interchangeable trio; if Lily wasn't available to go with James one day, Remus would and vice versa. If Sirius had been sat where James was, he would have been in that position and he wouldn't be stuck with Peter as a partner. He couldn't think of anything worse. So he wanted to know if the work was going to be as awesome as he thought it would be, duelling death eaters and kicking arse, because that would possibly make up for the fact that he was trapped with Peter. James and Remus weren't giving him much though.

'Yeah fight for our lives.' Remus said in reply to Sirius' complaint, 'It wasn't exactly a trip to the beach.'

'Ah leave him be.' James laughed as the three of them finally entered the kitchen. James ruffled Sirius' hair. 'Little puppy's just excited to be let out of his cage.'

'Shut it Prongs.' Sirius said, fixing his hair now it had been messed up, 'I just wanna know-'

'We duelled. We escaped. We're all fine.' Remus said, walking around to the cupboard and taking out three glasses, one for each of them. 'What more do you wanna know?'

'Err, what it was like to kick death eater arse?' Sirius said as if it was obvious, rounding the kitchen counter himself and getting the pumpkin juice out from the cold cupboard in a bid to help Remus. He handed it to him, 'Just wanna know what I'll be doing tomorrow. You got a letter by the way Prongs.' he added on the end, talking to James.

'Where?' James asked.

'Table.' Sirius stated simply before turning back to Remus. He handed him the pumpkin juice as he continued. 'Come on Moony! Details! It's all in the details!'

You probably won't get to do anything tomorrow anyway seeing as they attacked today.' Remus shrugged, pouring equal amounts of juice into the three different glasses before handing the jug back to Sirius.

'But if I do-'

'Then you'll have to follow Dorcas and Sturgis' instruction.' Remus said, picking up his glass and bringing it to his lips, 'That's all we did with Marlene and Benjy. Isn't that right Prongs? Prongs?'

James hadn't answered him and so, turned to see if he was still there. He was. He was sat at the table with the letter he had received in his hand and a thick envelope from inside said letter sat next to his other hand which he had balled into a tight fist. He looked pale and ghost like.

'Prongs?' Sirius said worriedly, leaving his glass of pumpkin juice where it was and rounding the kitchen counter, moving closer to his best friend. 'What's wrong? Who's that from?'

'It's from Williamson.' James almost whispered.

'From the auror programme?' Remus asked with a frown.

James nodded and gulped. 'She err…found this is one of the books I gave her.' he said softly, pointing his finger down on the table to the thick envelope on the table. 'Wh-when we returned them when we quit. It's my Mums will.'

Remus and Sirius looked at each other in confused surprise.

'Your mums will?' Remus asked to confirm. When James nodded he carried on. 'What was it doing in one of those books? Why was it there?'

It took a couple of moments for James to speak. He folded the letter the Williamson had written to him back up and chucked it into the middle of the table. He then picked up the envelope with the will inside it and turned it over in his hands. He exhaled with a small shake of his head. 'A few days before she died, I was studying with them and…she came in. She said she had something for me to sign. She put it with the books. I took no notice.'

He shook his head and stood up from the table, pushing his chair backwards with no particular care.

Sirius knew what he was thinking. 'James that doesn't mean anything.' he stated, 'Don't read into it.'

James looked at him with a slight disbelieving frown. He shook his head again. 'She gave it to me to sign _three_ days before she died.'

'I know.' Sirius started slowly, 'But that doesn't mean-'

'No.' James cut him off, suddenly forceful, 'Three days Sirius. Three.' He gulped and his voice became soft again. 'She knew she was going to die.'

'You can't be sure-' Remus tried, but James cut him off too.

'She _knew! _And I was too busy to even notice that my own Mum was dying!' James said angrily, his voice raised. He looked between the pair of them as if daring them to say he was wrong. Neither of them spoke. He hung his head and moved a hand to his forehead, dragging it down his cheek. 'I can't deal with this.' he said.

Remus and Sirius watched him walk out of the room with worry. They looked to each other but had no words to say. Nothing they could do or say would change James' mind or make him feel any better. Just as they had when Jane Potter had died, they felt useless.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! (Hope that end wasn't too depressing)**

**Review if you want too!**

**The next update will be on 15th of August**

**Galindaba**


	23. Chapter 22

**Hey everyone!**** :D**

**Thank you to my loyal reviewers, DogO, Clozza and Imagionista! :) You guys always make my day so thank you! And I love that your siblings are reading my stories too! Thats awesome! :D**

**So here's Chapter Twenty-Two I hope you enjoy it!**

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

* * *

'You have all FAILED!' Voldemort yelled at his followers who were left standing in the room.

Upon hearing that the few trusted followers he had sent had failed to retrieve Dianna Marsket, the asset they had tracked down thanks to her new protection from their rival group the Order of the Phoenix, he had lost the calm façade he usually adopted when bad news was brought to him. He had screamed in frustration and had taken to his wand. He blasted holes through the long table that ran through the centre of the room, caused the alight chandelier to crash to the ground, setting fire to the remnants of said table which slowly burned through to the chairs around it. He had sent bolts of lightning through the sky of the room, enraging the flames further and had sent the followers that had disappointed him flying into the walls of the room with such force that they were bound to have broken bones. Finally, he had killed the death eater, Barrow, who had initially informed him of their shortcomings. He hadn't even batted an eyelid. He just killed him.

When he had taken out his frustration at the incompetence that the people he had assembled had demonstrated, with a sharp action of his wand, he had frozen the flames in the room and looked around at the damage he had done. It was seconds later that he extinguished the flames for good, the embers and ash still glowing on the floor, chairs and the table. Swiftly, he twirled his wand in the direction of Igor Karkaroff. He one of the ones who had returned from the unsuccessful escapade Voldemort was so angry about. He had been flung up towards the ceiling and had landed in a heap on the floor with a broken arm, his black flowing hair covering his face. But Voldemort revived him, brought him, and him alone, back to standing. He left the other five on the floor, one of course, dead and gone forever. It was Karkaroff who was faced with the hard task of explaining their failure to their master. He standing in front of him with his head bowed, hair still covering his face, whilst only yards behind him, a few other death eaters stood to watch his attempts; his attempts at telling the tail in such a way that his life and the lives of his cohorts would be spared.

Voldemort pointed his wand at him, his wrist twisting round. His face was seething with loathing. He hated failure. 'How…did you let this happen?' he asked Karkaroff in deathly quiet tones.

'My Lord.' Karkaroff began, trying to quell the tremor in his voice, 'We were not prepared for the possibility of four protectors. We believed there would only be two. The other two came…out of nowhere. There was nothing we could do, My Lord.'

'There were six of you were there not?' Voldemort hissed, 'Surely six trumps four?'

'My Lord…please.' Karkaroff started to beg, 'It- it wasn't that we were outnumbered at first but, the two that came out of nowhere, they stunned Yaxley and Macnair from behind, Mulciber had already been knocked out…it was just three of us against the four My Lord. There was nothing we could do.'

Voldemort turned to him with an oddly twisted serene smile. 'There was nothing you could do?' he asked in quiet repetition to Karkaroff. He then spoke louder to the death eaters that were gathered at the other end of the room, the ones who had been watching the events unfold in front of them as quiet bystanders. There were as good as thirteen of them at the back of the small-on-the-outside-big-on-the-inside shack. Dotted between them was Rodolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy, the Carrow's, Travers and Severus Snape. They had done nothing to quell Voldemorts rage, nothing to prevent him from killing Barrow and nothing to keep him from torturing the rest of their fellow associates. They had all just stood there with sick fascination, watching the devastating wrath of their leader. They were all just glad it wasn't them.

'There was nothing he could do!' he said loudly to the rest of his followers, walking around Karkaroff to stand before them.

The death eaters he was looking at with his twisted smile all tittered at his words, knowing he meant them to be amusing. Bellatrix's loud cackle had been loudest of all. She was silenced by her husband. Lucius had given a soft chuckle and Severus had but sneered in entertainment. They watched the interaction between their master and the man who had been party to the disappointment he had been brought, eager for more to happen. They didn't have to wait long.

Suddenly, Voldemort tore his eyes from them, dropping his smile, and grabbed Karkaroff's hair from behind, placing his wand to his throat. He span him round to look at the others and held him in place for five long seconds. He spoke quietly to him, all his words separate and elongated. 'You could have done better.' Then he threw him to the ground in front of his sneering allies, the ones Karkaroff was supposed to be equal to, and walked back to the other end of the room where his chair still stood intact. It was the only piece of furniture that hadn't been destroyed.

He sat down, his robes billowed out around him, his legs crossed. He leant an elbow on the arm to his chair and brought his fingers up to his mouth in thought. He had regained that calm façade he had lost earlier.

'My Lord.' Karkaroff croaked from the floor, his head hung in shame, 'Please…'

'I do not have time for incompetence Karkaroff.' Voldemort stated, 'You have failed me. I should give your task to someone else. Someone who does not have the ineptitude you do.'

At the back of the room, as if abruptly being commanded to do so, many of the death eaters stood up straighter, all eager to please. Some of them had, of course, retreated. But most of them had been overcome with a sudden pride in themselves. All wanted to be chosen to replace Karkaroff and the other who had failed on this oh so important mission; one of the first phases in Voldemorts plan to assume control in, not only the wizarding world, but the muggle world as well. It would be a privilege to be chosen and they all knew it. There were the obvious ones who wanted the opportunity, the chance to prove themselves capable of completing such an imperative task. Bellatrix had risen up in herself, puffing out her chest as she did and trying to take an unconscious step forwards. Rodolphus had clung onto her arm, holding her back, but nevertheless had also risen up in himself to look smart. Severus' eyes had become hooded with desire and, his old school mate Avery, (who he did not particularly like for stealing the job he had wanted at Moribund's), had also adopted the same look. They were all desperate to undertake the assignment Karkaroff had failed at.

After them, you had the death eaters who knew they were capable of such a feat, who knew they would be able to capture Dianna Marsket and bring her back to Voldemort in the state he wanted. Lucius Malfoy, Travers, Alecto Carrow and Crabbe Sr. were such death eaters. They had been trusted with important assignments before now, having been with Voldemort for more than a few years now. Lucius had been the one entrusted to bewitch the minister's ex-assistant in the first place, the one to force him to look into the forbidden file that had given them the information they were all working off of now. All of them had taken part in many endeavours of Voldemorts and succeeded. Locating the late Ava Marsket and her baby boy Malakai had been down to them. The Hogsmeade attacks a few years back. They had helped with the capturing of muggle-born healers from St. Mungos whose disappearances were still not reported or under suspicion. They had always succeeded quite nicely for Voldemort. They knew they were the obvious choices to take over Karkaroff's mission. However, none would be chosen to replace him just yet. He still had more information to give.

'Please, My Lord.' Karkaroff said again, his voice now a whisper. He turned around on the floor, still kneeling towards the on looking death eaters but twisted round so that he faced Voldemort, 'We will do better next time. We will. We know the new faces now and-'

'New faces?' Voldemort said, standing up again, suddenly alert, 'What new faces?'

'There-there were two of them.' Karkaroff stammered, turning around to face Voldemort fully now, 'Th-they were the ones to stun Mulciber before the ones we knew of - McKinnon and Fenwick - before they came.'

Voldemort looked infuriated, the calm he had adopted seething out to be replaced by anger once more. He said nothing as Karkaroff rambled on.

'The new ones, they were skilled My Lord.' Karkaroff said, kneeling up, begging Voldemort to believe him, 'We underestimated them.'

There was a silence that filled the air. The death eaters at the back of the room looked at each other, all suddenly tense as Voldemort thought to himself, turning his back on them and walking back towards his chair. He didn't sit down though. He just stood in front of it in thought.

For Voldemort, the news that there were two new faces in the Order of the Phoenix guard was not at all pleasing. It meant that Dumbledore was gathering a following of his own, a following whose sole purpose was to destroy him and his cause. Until now, the Order of the Phoenix had been nothing but a hindrance on him. They had intervened in certain cases and had prevented Voldemort from getting to certain muggles or mudbloods. But to him, that was nothing major. There were others he could go after, others attacks that Dumbledore would not think of to suspect. In no major way had they, in Voldemorts opinion at least, been able to force him into retreat. And this was because, by sheer numbers, Voldemorts army of death eaters outweighed Dumbledore's protectors. But to hear that he had consigned new people, ones who were willing to openly defy Voldemort and put their lives in danger to fight him, was bad. It meant that there were still those out there who questioned him. And two new faces opened the door to the possibility of more. More which Dumbledore could not have.

Voldemort whipped around to Karkaroff. 'Who are these new faces?' he asked him, 'What are their names?'

'I-I didn't hear, My Lord.' Karkaroff said, hanging his head in shame again, 'I do not know them. But-but, Mulciber!' he went on, pointing his finger over to the shallow breathing body of Mulciber who was lying flat on the floor with only his head resting against the wall. 'He knew them.' Karkaroff finished.

Voldemort looked to Mulciber too and waved Karkaroff away. Karkaroff scrambled to his feet, relieved that Voldemort seemed to have pardoned him. He muttered words of thanks as he quickly hurried over to the back of the room to join the other death eaters gathered there. He made his way through the crowd and to the very back of them, almost using them as a wall between himself and his master. He watched along with them.

Voldemort flicked his wand and Mulciber rose limply into the air, hanging there like a corpse for all to see. He was not dead though. The impact of hitting the wall, the one Voldemort had thrown him against in his rage, had fractured his spinal cord though. He had obviously passed out from the pain. Voldemort moved his flaccid body through the air into the centre of the room. He walked around him, his wand still on him, assessing what damage had been done. After a brief two minute examination, Voldemort twisted his wand and shot out an invisible wave of air into Mulciber's back. It cracked loudly but automatically seemed to put life back into him. With another wave of his wand, he revived the boy back to consciousness and lowered him to standing on the floor. It was now his turn for interrogation.

Mulciber bowed his head. 'My Lord.' he said respectfully, despite the fact that not ten minutes ago, Voldemort had seriously injured him in a rage induced fit. That didn't matter.

'Who were the two new members to Dumbledore's pathetic little group?' Voldemort asked, moving his wand in his hands as if it was a baton. He rolled it between his thin bony fingers, waiting for the answer.

'My Lord I knew them from Hogwarts.' Mulciber said, his head still bowed but his eyes flickering around the room nervously. His eyes rested on Barrow's lifeless form and her thanked Merlin that it wasn't him. He would have hated to have disappointed Voldemort to that extent. He would have failed in life if he did. He continued. 'They were Gryffindors.'

'Fucking typical!' came a crude shout from the back of the room, presumably from Lestrange Sr. who was always inputted some sort of foulmouthed comment whenever he attended these meetings. Usually his comments would have gone uncared for, but not today. Today, Voldemort was in a foul mood for obvious reasons.

'SILENCE!' Voldemort shouted at the man he himself had attended Hogwarts with, one of his initial followers from way back when. He didn't care about this though. He turned back to Mulciber. 'Names.' he stated, rather than asked, demanding Mulciber speak up.

'James Potter and Remus Lupin.' Mulciber offered up gladly.

From the back of the room, there was a myriad of different reactions. Some of the death eaters, upon recognising one of the names from a previous plan, looked to each other in mild curiosity. A couple other jeered at the name Potter for it was well known that that family, though wealthy and still in pure-blood status, was known to sympathise with mudbloods. Also, Mr. Potter was an auror, one who in his final years had taken a few of the older death eaters on, winning in each duel. Mrs. Potter was a healer and she had been one of the ones to protect St. Mungo's when they had tried to descend on it a couple years back. The youngest Potter boy, the one whose name had been mentioned, had fought against a few of them in the Hogsmeade attacks when he was just a sixth year. His family name received heckles and a hiss from Bellatrix Lestrange. The only person who seemed stunned into silence was Severus Snape.

His face betrayed him nothing. Upon hearing James Potter and Remus Lupin's names fall from Mulciber's lips, he had adopted a placid expression. He hated them both. One was a filthy werewolf, one who had almost killed him during the beginning of their sixth year during a full moon. He had no time for him. The other was his long time nemesis, bully and now, the person who was in a relationship with Lily Evans, who was loving her the way Severus longed to. When he heard their names his mind had frozen in two parallel worlds. One full of disgust and loathing for them both, envy for James too, and the other full of panic. If James Potter had joined the Order of the Phoenix, others wouldn't be far behind. There would be Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, ones who would do anything he said. If James Potter had told them that he was going to sail around the world and kidnap goats for a living, as ridiculous as it sounded, he would have an immediate following from those who he called his friends. The other person who would follow him to the ends of the earth and back would be Lily Evans. And Severus knew where she stood on the issue of Voldemort and all that he stood for. He knew, he just _knew _that she would now be a member of the Order of the Phoenix. It filled him with dread. Still, he didn't show it. He just listened.

Voldemort looked thoughtful. 'Potter.' he said first. He knew the name. He knew every pure-blood family name in the wizarding world. He was against spilling such blood but, on this occasion. He believed he could make the exception. He then thought over the other name but could not quite put his finger on why it was so familiar. He recognised the Lupin aspect but the Remus was added information that was clouding his memory on where he knew the boy from. He looked back to his followers. 'Who is the Lupin boy?'

'My Lord,' Lucius Malfoy spoke up, stepping forwards to address his master, a stiff rigidness about him as he spoke, 'Lupin is the werewolf boy. A few years back we requested Fenrir Greyback to call him in an attempt to bring him into the fold.' Lucius paused and his expression turned cold and disapproving. 'He failed, My Lord.'

'Yes, yes…' Voldemort hissed in a remembering whisper. 'I recall…Well, we must enlist his help again.' Voldemort smiled that sick smile again, speaking sadistically to his followers, a plan formulating in his mind, 'To kill two of Dumbledore's followers would not be sufficient. By all means, we can dispose of the Potter boy. I have no use for the blood-traitor. But Dumbledore would be oh so…perturbed, to learn that someone who he has trusted had defected.' he informed them slowly, malice in his eyes, 'To have someone he has given so much to betray him would damage him in a way you cannot imagine.'

The death eaters sneered and sniggered at the back of the room. Bellatrix whooped at the idea of her old classmates dying and Severus, smirked to himself, entirely smug. James Potter dying was more than enough for him. He could deal with a defected Remus Lupin if the other came true.

'Find Greyback.' Voldemort instructed Lucius who was still stood slightly affront the crowd of death eaters, 'Tell him I have a job for him.'

'Of course, My Lord.' Lucius nodded, understanding his task.

Voldemort continued. 'The Potter boy shouldn't be too much trouble on his own.' Voldemort began, eyeing up his followers, wondering who he should give this delightful job to, 'When he is found I want-'

'My Lord?' Bellatrix interrupted him, leaning forwards from her husband's arm, adoration in her eyes. People looked over at her but she ignored them and looked only into Voldemorts curious face. 'My Lord, allow me to go after Potter.' she pleaded, 'There would be no greater pleasure than to do this for you My Lord.'

Voldemort stood in thought for a second, studying Bellatrix who seemed so eager to please. She had proved herself able to kill someone who was unworthy of magic before. She could do it again. 'Very well.' he said, nodding once at her. His gaze lingered on her for a second until he turned around and swept over to Mulciber, ordering him to stand up.

'Well done Mulciber.' he said calmly, 'It seems you have not been a complete failure today. Just know that if you do disappoint me again though, there will be severe consequences.'

'Yes, My Lord.' Mulciber replied, bowing his head before making his way to the back of the room to stand next to Severus in duty.

Voldemort now stood alone before his loyal servants, scanning them once more, his eyes finally resting on Travers.

'Am I right in thinking you have news for me?' he asked.

'Yes My Lord.' Travers said, stepping forwards as Lucius had only moments ago and bowing his head to his master. He hadn't told Voldemort he had new for him. Through scanning the lot of them he had found it himself. But it was Voldemorts way to have the news delivered by a messenger out loud. Travers did his part. 'We have found one Ian Jacobs as you requested, My Lord.'

Nobody recognised the name. Nobody knew the name. None but Voldemort. His eyes narrowed in delight. 'Excellent.' he said.

* * *

James walked with Lily through the snow covered graveyard at St Martin's church near Conwy Valley, the part of which muggles believed to be some ancient remains from a lost church. They were both wrapped up warmly, given the weather. James was in a brown jacket with a teal blue scarf wrapped around his neck, one he had to buy for the winter as Lily still had his. She was wearing it now, the Gryffindor scarf he had with his initials on it that he had given to her at the end of a Quidditch match in their sixth year. She had never given it back but had instead, claimed it as her one. It was draped around her neck elegantly and over the top of her purple fitted coat. The colours clashed but she didn't much care. The scarf smelt of James, of beech wood, and although she had the real thing next to her, she did like the way that scarf made her feel so safe. James had his hands shoved deep into his grey jeans to keep them warm and Lily had cream coloured gloves on which was, clearly, the more sensible option. They were both swathed in layers of clothes underneath and both were wearing winter boots that allowed them to trudge through the snow with ease. Lily had her arm linked through James' as they walked through the grounds, heading to the direction of Mr. and Mrs. Potters graves. James was extremely quiet.

He hadn't spoken much in little over a week. Only when he was spoken to really. He wasn't the one who was making conversations or contributing to them. Even when out of Order assignments he was just solemnly quiet, doing his duty without words. He was too involved in his own thoughts. It was just the week before that he had received a letter from his old tutor at the auror programme. She had found his mother's will in one of the books he had returned to her when he had gone in to inform her he was quitting. She had sent it back to him and when he saw it, James suddenly remembered the reason why it was in with those books. He hadn't been able to get it out of his mind since. It was torturing him, the guilt. Thoughts swirled around his mind. If only he had paid more attention. If only he had asked. If only he had seen that his mother was dying. Remus and Sirius had tried to convince him that there could have been another reason why his mother had wanted him to sign the will but James couldn't see any other possible explanation. Was there really any other reason why she would want to transfer everything into his name? No. He didn't think so.

He was a bad son. That was the conclusion he had come to. Even if there was the slightest possibility that his mother hadn't been ill, that she hadn't been dying, he would never know. He could never ask her and would now have to forever carry around the thought that maybe, just maybe, if he had noticed he could have done something about it. You couldn't convince him that there was nothing he could have done. Again, that was something that Remus and Sirius had tried to do but he had ignored those attempts too. Instead, he retreated back into himself and had slowly began to return to the state he had been in when he had initially lost his mum. Realising this, getting the will through the post and remembering why, it was like losing her all over again. There was very little that was good about the situation. In fact, there were only two good things he could think of that were even remotely positive within the hundred and one reasons why it was bad.

The two reasons kind of linked together. Thanks to the return of the will, James was able to cancel all the appointments he had made at the Ministry to sign over all Potter properties to his name. All he had to do was take the will in, have an officiate watch him sign it, and all deeds and properties belonged to him. He was unexplainably nervous about going in to do it though. He had no idea why. Probably because it got rid of the last link that he had to his family. It was like the final nail in the coffin. Having to go in every few days to sign over a new heirloom or something was arduous but it also meant that the process of getting rid of his mums name was slow and that was sort of nice for him. But with the return of the will, it would all be over in a matter of instance. Legally, his mother would own nothing and it would all be his. He would, in the eyes of the ministry, be officially alone in the world. The last Potter standing. So he dreaded going in to do it. That was where the second reason came in. It was Lily.

He couldn't explain that either. She was just brilliant. Unlike Remus and Sirius who had tried to convince James that there was a possibility Jane Potter didn't know she was dying, she had just soothed him, not telling him that he had no proof for it like they had. He knew they had tried to help him but it was Lily who had achieved it. He didn't know how she had managed it but she did. She had also been the only one to pick up on his cautiousness about signing everything over, his trepidation at doing it all in one go. So she had offered to go with him. She told him that he didn't have to do it right away but, whenever he did, she would be there to help him through it. Then, when he had told her he had an appointment at the Ministry for today, despite it being a Tuesday, a day when she ordinarily had healer training, she had come with him, excusing herself from the class for it. She hadn't even gotten irritated at him when he was grumpy thanks to hardly any sleep, something that was a mix of dreading this meeting and the end of the full moon. She was just a shining light in his life and despite the circumstance that had brought it about being one that made him depressive, he began to appreciate just how much she did for him a little more than he had. He had never loved her more.

After he had signed over all properties to himself, feeling oddly empty, he had turned to Lily for help. He was at a loss of what to do. It was one of the few times she saw the vulnerability he hid so well. But even with little experience in it, she knew exactly what to do. He had no idea how she did but she did. Incredibly, she knew that he was feeling lost and alone, officially being the only one left in all legal circumstances. The first thing she had said to do was to send the deed to the mansion over to Dumbledore at Hogwarts so he could finally place whatever enchantments or charms around the mansion that it was needed for. They went to the post office and did this straight away but she somehow still knew that, even though what they were doing was proactive and necessary, James still felt empty. So she had placed her soft hand to his cheek and had suggested that they visit the graveyard his parents were buried in. He would never have thought of it. Yet she did. It felt like the right thing to do, especially as it was only a week and a half until the anniversary of his Dads death. So he had nodded and they had apparated to the graveyard together in the winter chill.

They strolled through the grounds for a few minutes before coming to the graves. His dads had a sleek black headstone with gold engraved writing upon it detailing his name, date of birth and his death. There was also a quote on it that read 'Live life to the fullest, for live is all too short'. It was something his Father had told James once and he had taken it seriously. It was one of the reasons he was so laid-back in school, pulling pranks and messing about. So when it came for him and his Mum to decide what to write on his Dads gravestone, it had seemed perfect. He had no idea what he would write for his Mother though. He didn't need to worry about it just yet thankfully. He had to wait a year before marking her grave with a stone for her body had to take to the earth. He had until next Halloween to think of one.

'Are you all right?' Lily asked him softly, rubbing his arm with her gloved hand.

James nodded. 'Yeah.' he replied, 'It's just odd you know…I can talk to them but they can't answer.'

'I know.' Lily said sadly.

James blinked at their graves, side by side. Even death did not part them as their marriage vows had said it would. They would forever be together. He reread the quote on his Dad's grave and smiled to himself, thinking of him. It was something he didn't do regularly. He felt guilty about that but, he supposed, he couldn't let his thought be consumed by it. His Dad wouldn't have approved of that at all, never wanting James to mourn his death. He had wanted him to celebrate his life. And the quote on the gravestone was a clear reminder of this. James turned to Lily.

'You've never met my Dad.' he said, a faint smile on his face.

'No I haven't.' Lily said with a small shake of his head.

'Okay.' James said, taking his hands out of his pockets and opening his arms to the headstone, 'Lily, meet my Dad. Dad, this is Lily. She's my girlfriend. She's very weird.'

Lily gave a small laugh and took James' arm in hers, resting her head on it as he put his hands back into his pockets. 'Would I have liked your dad?' she asked.

'Of course you would!' James said surely, 'He was like me.'

Lily smiled. She was glad this had helped him. He had been so absent the past week after finding out his mother had possibly known of her fate. But now, in this moment, she felt she had him back again. He was being his arrogant self and, though at one point in her life she had absolutely detested it, she couldn't think of anything better in the world than that boy who thought he was the be all and end all of life. That was her James.

'Would he have liked me?' she asked him. At that point, unfortunately, a bird had decided to relieve itself whilst flying through the air. It had landed on the arm of Lily's coat.

James looked at the birds faeces with a smirk. 'I'm gonna say no.'

'You think your dad gave us his answer through a bird?' she asked sceptically.

James shrugged, still smirking, and looked at her. 'I'm just saying it's an awfully big coincidence not to be the case.' he said with the starts of a grin.

Lily shook her head fondly at him and brushed his messy hair back from his face. 'You're such an idiot.' she smiled.

'But you love me.' James said.

'Mmm.' Lily hummed. She took her hand away from his hair and stepped away. 'I'm gonna see if there's a bathroom in the church to wash this off before it sets.' she said to him.

'Okay.' he said in return. He watched her walk away from him with an adoringly dopey smile, following her figure until she reached the main path to the church. When she had, he turned back to the graves of his parents, but the smile and joy he had found with Lily there seemed to have disappeared when she walked away. Now he just felt empty without her here; empty and sad. He was the last of a noble family that had gone back generations, standing in front of the people who had shaped who he was today. The people who he knew should still be with him. But they weren't and he felt so alone. However, James being who he was wouldn't be alone for long.

'I miss you.' he murmured to the ground.

'Aww.' came a sarcastically cooing voice behind him, 'How sweet.'

James turned around, almost in slow motion, to confirm the suspicions he had on who that voice had belonged to. Sure enough, he was right. There she sat, disrespectfully upon a gravestone, her feet, clad in black lace-up boots kicking the writing, her hands either side of her steadying her and keeping her balanced. Her crazy black hair was flying around her face in the winter wind, her dark eyes narrowed in a happily evil expression. She looked like a cat who enjoyed to play with the mouse, enthralled by the torture, before she ate it; Bellatrix Lestrange.

'Do you mind?' James said, his expression one of disbelief, 'This is kind of private.' They may be rivals but, if she was visiting someone's grave, he would give her a break. It was the decent thing to do. But Bellatrix was not a decent person.

'You're private life has always fascinated me.' Bellatrix said, the hints of a sadistic smile playing around her lips.

James' eyes widened in repulsed surprise and he looked down to his Dad's grave in a 'can you believe this' kind of way before saying. 'Well that's disturbing to know, thank you.'

'You, who's from a family just as noble as mine,' she started, hopping off of the gravestone she had been sat on and landing with a crunch in the snow, 'consorting with the scum you do.'

James began to breathe deeply. His fists clenched in his pockets. He could feel himself starting to get angry, the heat burning through his chest.

'The werewolf,' Bellatrix continued with a sneer, 'my good for nothing cousin. And, that little mudblood-'

'HEY!' James shouted at her once, pointing his finger at her and dropping his voice to a deathly quiet whisper, the level he reached when he was truly angry. The level anyone who knew James would run a mile from. 'Don't you _dare _call her that!'

'It's what she is.' Bellatrix jeered, the most unbecoming expression on her face, 'And you are a filthy blood-traitor for being with her!'

'I don't live my life with the same rules you do.' James said, still deathly quiet, dropping his hand. 'And I'm ecstatically happy about that.'

'Well that will be over for you soon.' Bellatrix said, beginning to smile a twisted smile, one that could even rival Voldemorts.

'And why's that?' James asked in a tone that plainly said he didn't not have the time not patience for this. He ached to reach for his wand but would only do that when she drew hers. He was at his parents' grave for goodness sakes. He would show a bit of respect for them even if she wouldn't give him that same courtesy. He would hold off until completely necessary out of reverence for them and anyone else who was laid to rest here.

'Because,' Bellatrix said, slowly beginning to withdraw her wand.

James became wary and was poised for defence, his hand around his back, his hand clasping itself around his own wand.

She gave him a warped smile and continued with her sentence, nice and slow. She truly was someone who liked to tease her prey before the meal. 'I have the sweet pleasure, the happy task, of killing you Potter.' she said.

'Then let me say, so far, you're really not doing a very good job.' he said to her, sarcastic but humourless.

Bellatrix gave a single breathless laugh at his aggravation. She glanced down to the graves on her left and spoke again. 'You'll be with your blood-traitor parents soon enough.' she spat, 'And, if you'd like, I can make sure your dear sweet mudblood joins you.'

James seethed. He had never before felt such anger. He had heard Lily being called a mudblood before, just moments ago in fact, and it had always infuriated him. But to hear her life being threatened was something completely new and unprecedented. He had never known it was possible to be this angry before. It filled him so completely he could actually hear the blood pump around his own body. His words were quieter than they'd ever been and more deadly that before. 'You bitch.' he said.

He withdrew his wand and Bellatrix withdrew hers. She raised hers first, sweeping it through the air and was about to speak when she suddenly collapsed onto the floor, hitting her head on the corner of James' Dads gravestone as she did. James looked up with wide surprised eyes. Behind where Bellatrix had stood, was Lily, her arm outstretched, her wand in her hand.

She looked down at Bellatrix for a couple seconds then back up to James. 'Are you ok?' she asked him, worry etched onto her face.

James didn't answer her but the rage that had been boiling inside of him disappeared by her appearance. He broke a smile at her and went forwards, stepping over Bellatrix to get to her and capturing her in his arms, holding her closely against himself in a hug. He kissed her hair and squeezed her in tight. He pulled away from the hug, holding her arms and looking into her eyes, taking them in, unable to see why anyone would want to threaten her.

'You're amazing, you know that?' James told her sincerely.

Lily grimaced a smile, unable to take the compliment for she was too concerned with something else. 'Do you think she's ok?' she asked, looking over to Bellatrix's unconscious form on the floor.

James swallowed. 'I really don't care.' he told her, a questioning frown appearing on his face as he looked at Lily with curiosity.

'But she hit her head pretty hard.' Lily went on, releasing herself from James' hold and going over to bend over the girl. She lifted Bellatrix's head under her chin with her hand and moved it round to see if she was bleeding. Luckily she wasn't. 'She's not bleeding.' she stated, 'I hope she's not got concussion or anything.' she said, looking up to speak to James. She would have looked down again to continue to study Bellatrix only James' expression stopped her.

He was looking at her with the strangest look. He was smiling at her, his eyes both adoring and partly saddened at the same time. He had pure love for her but also misunderstanding. He couldn't quite figure her out.

'What?' she asked him, feeling a small blush creep its way up do her face and powdering it a faint pink.

'It's just…' he began, shaking his head in slight disbelief, 'Your kindness never fails to amaze me.'

Lily was unsure of how to take that compliment too. She looked back down to Bellatrix but fluttered a smile to herself. She continued to look Bellatrix over whilst James watched her, that strange expression still on his face as he did. She couldn't find anything else wrong with the unconscious girl and so, stood up, and walked through the snow to get back to James, her arms folded against the cool winter air.

'I can't see anything else wrong with her.' she said to him, 'But do you think we should take her to Dumbledore just in case?'

'No.' James stated simply, 'She said she was here to kill me and she threatened you.'

Lily's eyes went wide. 'Why does she want to kill you?' she asked. She couldn't imagine anyone who would have a genuine desire to kill James. Sure he was annoying sometimes and she and the other marauders joked sometimes about wanting to kill him but that was different to someone actually coming with the malice and intention of doing so. She hated that idea.

'She said it was her happy task.' James shrugged, brushing that fact away and getting to the part that tortured his mind and heart. 'I'm more concerned with the fact that she threatened you though so let's go before she comes to.'

Lily looked over to Bellatrix with a sparing glance before turning back to James and nodding quickly. She took his arm and, with a huge crack, they disapparated, leaving an unconscious girl heaped at the head of Mr. Potters grave.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**The next update will be on the 24th of August!**

**Galindaba**


	24. Chapter 23

**Hey guys!**

**So thank you to the people who have reviewed so far! It really boosts my confidence as a writer when I come to update and see the review count go up so thanks a bunch! :D**

**I've got two chapters for you today. The first one, this one, is putting things in motion for Alice and Frank to join the Order so I'm sorry if it's dull :( hopefully it's not though. And theres a bit of James and Sirius stuff in these two chapters so I hope you like that and I also hope you like the James and Lily stuff in the next one! It was one of my favourite bits to write the beginning of the next chapter but...yeah. This one first guys!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Three**

Early Sunday morning, James stood in the main room of Madam Malkin's robes, the one that you waited in before going in to be measured. He was out Christmas shopping with Lily and, whilst they were in Diagon Alley, Lily had remembered that she needed to get fitted for her trainee healer robes. They had made a quick pit stop to get her all measured up and, whilst the robes she was purchasing were being altered to her size, they were going to go to the Leakey Cauldron for lunch. That was the plan at least. It hadn't panned out that way though. When they had entered the shop, it was heaving, absolutely packed with people who were buying new dress robes for Christmas. James had suggested coming back later but Lily said she just wanted to get it over and done with. She pointed out that, at whatever time they came back, the queue would probably be the same length considering how close it was to the holiday and how much people liked to dress up for the occasion. She assured him the queue wouldn't take that long to shorten up. But after twenty minutes, they still hadn't gotten any further. People had joined the line behind them and the people in front of them seemed to be getting as equally frustrated as James was. It took another ten minutes for the person who was holding everything in the shop up to come out of the room where Madam Malkin took measurements. However, he didn't leave straight away because, as it turned out, he knew Lily.

'Lily?' the question came from behind her.

Lily turned to the voice, away from James who she had been speaking to face to face, and smiled. It was her friend Thomas Ralston from the healer training programme.

'Hey Thomas.' Lily greeted him. She leant forwards and gave him a hug which he returned with a slight squeeze.

'Are you here for healer robe fitting?' he asked, a slight accent in his voice thanks to the fact that he was actually from Norway and had only come over to England for the course at St. Mungo's hospital.

'Yeah I am.' Lily nodded, 'We have to have them for after Christmas so I thought I might as well get it over and done with. Is that why you're here?'

'Ja. Yes.' Thomas said, 'But there was confusion with what I wanted. I could not explain properly.'

'So you're the cause of the hold up?' James asked him, his hands in his pockets and a slightly disinterested look on his face.

Thomas looked to him with slight wide eyes, a little intimidated for no particular reason, and swallowed. 'Yes.' he said, 'Sorry.'

James shrugged and looked away, leaving Lily to get on with her conversation. She rolled her eyes at him and hit him on the arm which he just chuckled at. She turned back to Thomas.

'Ignore him.' Lily said to him apologetically, 'Is everything sorted now?'

'Ja. Yes.' Thomas nodded. He held up the brown paper bag that Madam Malkin had put his newly tailored robes in to. 'But I must to go now. I have appointment with, err, cobbler for shoes.'

'Oh ok.' Lily smiled, reaching forwards and hugging him again. 'I'll see you in class then.'

'A goodbye.' Thomas said to her, nodding timidly at James, before making his way out of the crowded shop and into the snow laden street. The crowd engulfed him automatically.

When he had left them alone, (the queue now moving forwards on thanks to his departure), James looked to the door he had just exited from.

'He seems nice.' he said to Lily without looking at her, 'Polite.'

Lily nodded. 'He is.'

'I hate him.'

'James!' Lily reprimanded, hitting him once again on the arm which, to no surprise, he chuckled at again.

Lily rolled her eyes at him and peered around the queue. She expected it to move a bit quicker now that Thomas had left. After all, he had said that he was the cause of the hold up. Maybe it was just her mind playing tricks on her because they had been stood there for a while already, but it seemed like hours before the next person exited the fitting room. And, it turned out, Lily knew them as well.

'Alice!' she exclaimed up seeing her best friend.

She reached forwards, as she had done with Thomas, and hugged her. James watched her with slight confusion.

'Lily!' Alice said, just as excited to see her as she had been. They hadn't gotten together for a while now. The last time they had seen each other was way back when James was still on the auror training programme and Frank was worried that something was wrong with him. They had met up in Rosa Lee Teabags and Alice had enquired if everything was alright between Lily and her boyfriend. But that was it. They hadn't spoken since then, both girls being too busy with other things.

Lily had the healer training programme to deal with along with helping James through after the loss of him mother, his friends as well. Then, on top of all that, she now had work with the Order, having to go out on assignments to help aid the protection of Dianna Marsket and a man called Ian Jacobs who had just been confirmed as a target of Voldemorts. None of them knew why though. All they knew was that protection detail had become the Orders first and foremost focus and all of them were being stretched a little thin trying to take separate watches. Today was one of the first moments of reprise Lily and James had and it was only down to the Orders circumstances changing. As Hogwarts was going to be breaking up for Christmas any day now, Dumbledore and McGonagall were now available to help and had graciously taken over many of the watches themselves. They had also informed members of the Order that, on Christmas day, they could all be with their families as they had left Professor Flitwick in charge of the students who stayed behind at the school for the holiday. The pair of them, along with Moody and Mundungus (who wasn't particularly happy about it) were going to take a charge each to give other Order members a break. They were all very grateful.

Alice of course, hadn't been as busy or as stressed as all that. She only had the auror training programme to deal with and then her family and Frank but, in comparison, it wasn't as big of a responsibility as what Lily had had to deal with over the past couple of months. But she didn't know the different situations and so, was just rather confused as to why the pair of them hadn't gotten together for lunch or something. To her, it was all rather odd.

'It's so good to see you!' Alice said to Lily with a big smile. She then turned to James politely and said, 'All right Potter?'

But James didn't answer. He was still looking between his girlfriend and her best friend with mild confusion. 'Why do you hug people when you say hello?' he asked as a general question to both girls.

Alice raised her eyebrows. 'I see you haven't changed.' she said cheekily.

James bounced back into himself, shrugging and running a hand through his hair. 'Why would I change?' he scoffed arrogantly, 'I'm perfect.'

Alice laughed out loud, actually having missed James' cocky self-assurance. It was something which, you didn't realise was rather amusing until it had gone. After being with him at Hogwarts, in Gryffindor house for so many years and then on the auror training programme for about a month, the absence of someone who though he was the be all and end all of the world was rather noticeable. Alice knew she wouldn't be able to put up with it in the capacity that Lily had to but, as a friend, it was something she found she missed.

'Why are you here then?' Lily asked Alice, ignoring James with a shake of her head and now focusing her energies on her best friend, 'What did you buy?'

'Auror robes.' Alice said, rather depressively, holding up the brown paper bag that they were in.

'You were in there?' James asked, pointing to the measuring room that was hidden by a curtain.

'Yeah.' Alice answered cautiously.

James turned to Lily and, with a deadpanned expression, absolutely peeved off that they were still waiting in this queue, said 'If you know the next person who comes out of that room I'm going to kill them.'

Lily narrowed her eyes at him and then proceeded to ignore him. She turned back to Alice. 'Do you need them for after Christmas too?' she asked.

'Yeah.' Alice nodded, 'We were shopping today and thought we might as well get it over and done with.'

'That's what I said about my healer robes.' Lily said.

'So what have you been up to?' Alice asked with a politely curious expression, 'I haven't seen you in ages.'

'Well I-' Lily began, halting herself. 'Err…'

She couldn't answer. She couldn't say anything to Alice of what she had actually been doing because she wasn't allowed to talk about it. She could talk about it all to James, Sirius, Remus and Peter but anyone else was off limits. Nobody else could know about the Order. It was really hard to deal with at times. She had to constantly lie to her parents about where she was in evenings or during days when she wasn't at healer training because they just couldn't know what she was actually doing. It would put them in danger if they did and they would always be worrying about her. It was one of the things she really didn't like about being in the Order; the lying. She hated to lie. But she was forced to and now, she was being forced to lie to her best friend about it all as well. She just couldn't tell her that she was in actual fact part of a group that was fighting against Voldemort, protecting his known targets. She couldn't tell her that she had, just the other day, had a run in with some death eaters whilst protecting one of the targets, Ian Jacobs, and she and James along with Gideon and Fabian Prewett, Alice's distant cousins, had had to fight them off. She couldn't even tell her she knew her cousins. And she hated it.

She hesitated, not knowing what to say, how to continue her sentence. Thankfully, whenever Lily seemed to be in a flap, not knowing what to say, James always did and he stepped in for her.

'She's been helping me.' he said to Alice, drawing her attention to himself.

Lily looked to him gratefully which he only acknowledged by putting his hand on the small of her back reassuringly.

'Oh right.' Alice said, drawing her own conclusions of what that actually meant. She nodded sympathetically to James going on to ask, 'How are you?'

James, although he hated the sympathy, took it in his stride for Lily. 'I'm doing well thank you.' he said.

'Good.' Alice smiled sadly, 'I'm glad.'

James' jaw clenched slightly, hating the dollop of condolence that Alice had given him. Really he wished people would stop it all now but, he supposed, he'd probably be dealing with the sympathy for the rest of his life. It'd be something he would have to get used to and power through. It seemed tough but, with Lily by his side, he knew he could do it. He moved his hand from the small of her back and around her waist, gently pulling her into him slightly.

'Hey.' Frank said, appearing at the side of Alice with a similar bag to hers, obviously also filled with robes, 'What's up?'

James narrowed his eyes. 'Did you just come out of that room?' he asked Frank, pointing to the fitting room in question with the hand that wasn't gripped around Lily.

Frank frowned in confusion. 'Yeah?' he said with a questioning lilt.

'We're gonna go!' Alice said suddenly, seeing James' peeved expression and remembering him saying that, if he knew the next person who came out of the room, he was going to kill them. It was just a joke but she and Frank had other stuff to do today as well and so, needed to be going.

'Ok.' Lily said, a little bit sadly. She leaned forwards, stepping out of James' hold and hugged Alice, smiling at Frank over her shoulder who smiled back.

The girls said goodbye and the two couples went their separate ways, Alice and Frank exiting the shop and James and Lily staying where they were. James and Lily were quiet for a minute, Lily looking out of the glass in the door to where Alice and Frank were disappearing in the crowd, feeling extremely guilty in herself for not being able to actually hold a conversation with them. She had been able to hold more of a conversation with Thomas than she had with Alice, a friendship that amounted to convenience and a onetime trip to Florean Fortescue's. They had never hung out outside of the healer training programme or, apart from the once when they had first met, spoken about anything other than the course and what they read in their textbooks. Her friendship with Thomas was not like the one she had with Alice. It wasn't as deep. Hers and Franks fleeting appearance had made her realise how much she had missed them. But her time was cluttered and she couldn't think of a way to bring them back into her life at the minute. It really upset her.

'Seriously what is with the hugs?' James said Lily after a moment, trying to lighten her mood which he could see had obviously taken a U-turn from the happiness she had just had.

Lily just smiled half-heartedly and shook her head at him.

'Are you ok?' he asked concernedly, taking a slow step forwards in the queue which just didn't seem to be getting any shorter, despite the fact that three people had now left.

'No.' Lily said as if it was obvious. She folded her arms and lowered her voice. 'I can't tell her anything. I haven't seen her in ages and I can't even tell her why, what I'm up to, anything!'

James sighed, hating that he genuinely couldn't do anything apart from say, 'You know it's for the best right?'

'Whatever.' Lily said in reply, looking away from him. She knew it wasn't his fault that she couldn't tell Alice anything but he was here and so, he got the brunt of her mood. She didn't mean it but she couldn't help but be a little stroppy with his answer.

James ignored the moodiness in her answer and pulled her in for a one armed hug, kissing the top of her head through her hair. She didn't unfold her arms whilst he held her but he knew it wasn't anything personal. He rested his head on hers and thought for a second about what might cheer her up.

'Do you want your Christmas present now?' he said, a smile in his voice.

Lily took a single breathless laugh and smiled up at him in answer. He knew just what to do to make her smile again. He knew how much she loved presents and, even though she knew he didn't like people opening them before the day they were supposed to, he had still offered it to her, disregarding his own rule to make her happy. He truly was good to her. But Alice still burned in the back of her mind.

* * *

'I'm just saying have a bit more confidence in yourself Wormy.' James said as he and Peter apparated into Diagon Alley that evening.

There was a freezing cold chill in the air but there were still crowds of late Christmas shoppers milling around the shops that were still open down the street. With just a week to go before the holiday, people were in panic mode, rushing out to buy gifts for loved ones. By rights they had plenty of time but, for some products, there was a limited number of stock so if you wanted something in time for the holiday, for example, custom made goblin jewellery or a new broomstick, you had to put in an order for it. Thankfully, the reason James and Peter were in Diagon Alley was not to do their Christmas shopping. James had almost finished his anyway, only needing to buy a replacement present for Lily for the one he had given her earlier that day to cheer her up. She had said he didn't need to but, James being James, was not going to listen. He knew how much she loved presents and he loved the opportunity to spoil her. Peter didn't need to buy anything else now either. With his wages he had managed to buy presents for all his friends and his mum, with whom he was spending Christmas day with. No. The pair of them were simply there to drop Peter off at work, having just completed a stint protecting Dianna Marsket as she spent the afternoon in a nursing home with the young children she looked after for the muggle, Prime Minister's daughter, visiting their great-grandmother.

When they were out on assignment, they had found themselves with not much to do. They were out with Dorcas and Sturgis who, unlike Marlene and Benjy, did not pass off the bulk of the work to the newbies, (for they were still considered that even after a few weeks work). Instead, the group of them gathered around a table in the nursing home, one not too far from where Dianna sat with the children and the old woman, and has just ensured that she was ok. Death eaters did not attack so it was a relatively boring shift. They had resorted to talking about one another's romantic affiliations, learning more about each other and just general having a good old chinwag. James and Peter were especially interested in Sturgis' take on his own relationship with his fiancée and how that differed with that of Dorcas and her partner. Sturgis was adamant that he would not ever get married even though he had made the promise to do so and believed that it was better to be unattached as Peter was. His philosophy confused both the boys greatly, James asking that, if he wanted to be 'unattached' so much, then why was he engaged. Dorcas had answered for him stating that, although he claimed to want to be alone, deep down inside, he did love the girl he was with and would in fact marry her. Sturgis had protested but when Dorcas had the reiterated James' question in that motherly way she had with him, he hadn't been able to answer.

Dorcas was interesting to James and Peter too because, for someone who would love to see Sturgis finally tie the knot, she did not want to herself. She had apparently been with her partner for nine years, going on ten, and if he had proposed to her in the past, she had turned him down. She couldn't explain her reason for not wanting to get married but nevertheless, she did not want to. Sturgis had begun to try and use that as a way of combatting her arguments against him and how he was with his fiancée, but Dorcas had simply stated that, if she were ever to get engaged, she would go ahead with the promise. They had dropped the conversation there when Sturgis could think of no other retaliation and had moved on to James and Peter.

James of course, had someone to talk about, but Peter didn't and he clammed up. Eventually, when they started to ask him whether he was seeing someone or whether he wanted to be with anyone, he had admitted that he was just a little bit scared. Scared of committing, scared of being so open and honest with someone and scared of them saying no. James had tried to talk him round, using the example that Lily had said no to him for years before finally admitting she liked him back, trying to convince him that he shouldn't be worried. Dorcas had also tried to persuade Peter to not be so down on himself, that someone would say yes to him and that, when he found that person who was right for him, being open and honest with them, committing, wouldn't be so scary. James had agreed. Sturgis had not. He spent most of that conversation trying to undermine James and Dorcas' attempts at boosting Peter's confidence by telling him that it was better to stay single and 'not to do it'. When their watch was over and Fabian and Gideon had come to take over, Peter had left the conversation they were having feeling very confused. So, when James came with him to Diagon Alley, to drop him off at Diagon Alley before going to meet Sirius at the Leakey Cauldron, Peter had asked him whether he thought it was true that someone could one day find him attractive or whether he should follow Sturgis' advice and stay as he was; alone. James only had one answer.

He spoke from knowing what it was like to be with someone you really loved. And when James spoke about Lily in that way, there was just something about what he said that made you believe that, if you could one day find that too, then it would the best thing that could ever happen to you. Peter had listened to him with reverent awe, just wondering if it was actually possible for James to love someone that much, wondering if he too could love someone so completely. He was being drawn in to James' world, the one he shared with Lily, and really didn't want to leave it, wanting to believe that it was out there for him too. But when James finished his speech on how great things were in life when you had someone to share it with by saying, 'You just have to find the right person', Peter's hopes deflated. Finding someone. _That _was the difficult part. It was what he has mumbled gloomily to James and it was what James was telling him to have more confidence about. To have more confidence in himself.

When Peter sulkily agreed that he would try, James waved him into the Magical Menagerie where he had the night shift, taking care of the animals whilst the manager of the shop was on holiday. He really wished there was something he could do to help his friend realise that someone out there would love him but he really didn't know how. Anytime at Hogwarts Peter had asked a girl out, they had always turned him down. Now James was no stranger to rejection but Peter was apparently a stranger to the drive that James had, the feeling inside himself that told him not to give up, that Lily was the one for him. Instead of bouncing back and trying again as James had done or moving on as was Sirius' forte, Peter just didn't ask anyone else out for about a year, dwelling on his last rejection. The last person James remembered Peter asking out was Mary MacDonald. And the only reason he remembered that was because that had happened on the same day Lily had finally agreed to go out with him. Still, if Peter wasn't willing to change himself, to steal himself a bit of confidence, not only in his love life but within his social and family life too, then there was nothing James could do to help him, no matter how much he wanted to. A change like that had to come from yourself. It was something James knew about all too well.

He walked down the street, away from the Magical Menagerie, and down to the Leakey Cauldron where he said he would meet Sirius for a drink, (non-alcoholic for James after what had went down after he had lost his mum). When he entered the pub, which was laden with Christmas decorations and full of jovial spirits, James found that Sirius was not there yet, so he went to the bar to talk to Tom.

James and Tom, the landlord of the Leakey Cauldron for a good six or so months now, got on rather well. Tom was a few years older than James and had had to take over the family business when his father died. James had accompanied his mother to the funeral, her having been quite close to him in earlier years, and had met Tom there. It was an odd meet really, especially as Tom seemed to be taking everything rather well, laughing and joking like the best of them, but that was where they had initially hit it off. Ever since then, Tom had always invited James and his friends down for meals and drinks, the Leakey Cauldron fast becoming one of their regular hang out spots just as the Three Broomsticks had been when they were at Hogwarts.

'All right Tom?' James said, sitting down at the bar and calling over to Tom who was pulling a drink for a half-troll wizard with one eye considerably larger than the other. Tom had grinned and waved over to James, finishing with the half-troll's order before walking down the bar to greet James personally.

'All right, mate.' he said, getting a glass out from under the counter, taking the cloth that was in his apron and giving it a quick wipe round. 'What do you want?'

'Butterbeer, I think.' James said.

'Okie doke.' Tom replied, pulling a bottle of butterbeer from under the counter as well and uncapping the lid, pouring it into the glass he had just cleaned and set in front of James. 'What you been up to then? Haven't seen you in here much.'

'Nah I've been busy.' James said in answer, 'Had to take my girlfriend shopping this morning and visit someone with Pete later.'

'That's one day.' Tom laughed, 'Where you been every other day? Having you lot disappear doesn't do me well in business. You rack up some of the highest tabs I get!'

'They're not that high!' James laughed in return, waving Tom's comment away, 'Besides, you usually give us meals for free! If you're that worried about your business going down I'd address that first.' He laughed again and picked up the glass of butterbeer that Tom had poured for him, taking a refreshing sip and putting it back down.

'Please!' Tom snorted, 'Giving you them meals free is pocket change compared to the drinks bills you give me. You don't watch and I'll have all that money you inherited.'

'Fat chance!' James said.

'You keep telling yourself that.' Tom said in pedantic reply, 'So what else you been doing?'

'Couple part time things.' James answered with a shrug. He wasn't like Lily who clammed up when her friends asked her what she had been up too. James had a certain way of bending the truth so that he wasn't particularly lying, but he wasn't revealing secrets he shouldn't be either. 'Did some work as a waiter a few weeks back.'

'You got a job?' Tom mocked, 'Did the world end?'

'I do enjoy our conversations Tom.' James stated deadpanned, 'And no. The world is still spinning and I also got fired from that job the same day.'

'Doesn't surprise me!' Tom said with a grin, 'Surprised you even knew how to carry a plate. Doesn't everything arrive to you on a silver platter?'

'Excuse you but its gold.' James smirked, taking another drink of his butterbeer.

Tom laughed loudly. He and James always bantered like this if they saw each other. Tom always seemed to take the piss out of James' ridiculously privileged lifestyle which, in comparison to his own, was fit for a prince. He was the only one who had ever done this though. James friends, Sirius, Remus and Peter, and even his girlfriend, never seemed to comment on it. But he and James often joked about the outrageous wealth he had been left with.

'Excuse me?' came a call from halfway down the bar.

Tom and James both looked to see who had interrupted their conversation. It was a short plumping witch with bright pink robes on. Tom turned to James with wide eyes at his new customer and James returned a laugh before watching Tom walk away to serve the witch. James looked around the bar to see if Sirius had arrived yet, which he hadn't, and then went back to his drink. He sat there for a good ten minutes, waiting for Sirius and laughing at Tom who seemed to be trapped in a conversation with the pink witch, throwing warning glances at James every minute or so, before his attention was caught.

'Psst. Prongs.' came a loud whisper from the door that lead out into muggle London.

James turned around with a curious frown and squinted towards the door. Sirius, who had finally arrived, had his head peering around the door frame, not quite in, not quite out.

'Sirius?' James questioned, 'What in Merlin's name are you doing?'

'Come here!' Sirius grinned, his voice still in that hushed tone.

James shook his head and rolled his eyes and turned back to the bar. He downed the last of his butterbeer, called a goodbye to Tom who looked rather mortified at what the pink witch was saying to him, and walked over to the door where Sirius was waiting, walking out into muggle London.

'Ta daa!' Sirius said, opening his arms and presenting his overlarge motorcycle to James.

'Padfoot I've seen this before.' James said, shoving his hands in his pockets and coming to a standstill next to the bike. 'It's been the bane of my existence for two years.'

Sirius frowned. 'I dunno what Bane's got to do with it but, look Prongs! It's on the street.' Sirius enthused, walking around his bike and stroking the seat affectionately.

'And?' James asked.

Sirius paused where he was, taking his hand away from adoring his motorcycle. 'Don't you get it?' he asked.

James shrugged, a little uninterestedly.

'Prongs!' Sirius gasped, hurt that his best friend hadn't figured it out yet. He went on to explain. 'I've finished it. Like, properly finished it! It can fly now and everything!'

'Really?' James said in pure surprise. He took his hands out of his pockets and walked closer to the bike. 'Well what are we waiting for? Let's test it out!'

Sirius grinned madly in return to James suggestion and climbed on to the bike. James climbed on to the seat behind him and held onto his leather jacket to ensure he would not fall off which, with Sirius driving, was a high possibility. On a broom, Sirius whipped carelessly around the pitch in an aid to match James' effortless speed so, on a motorcycle, though he was racing against no one, James doubted he would be any different. Sirius started the motorcycle, the engine rumbling noisily beneath the pair of them whilst it was stood still and then roaring into action when Sirius kicked the kickstand, revved it up and sped off.

Having no idea where the hell he was going, Sirius raced down back alleys and side streets and round the jam-packed streets of London, swerving in and out of the Sunday traffic with ease. The wind whipped through their hair, Sirius' being blown back from his face, helping him to actually see where he was going, and James' just getting more and more messed up. But that was nothing unusual. They enjoyed the exhilaration, the rush of speed that the motorcycle had, not taking it up in the air until they found a rather uninhabited spot in the middle of Richmond Park. The rev of the engine and the burst of the exhaust that accompanied the ascent into the air frightened the birds in the trees who all took off with Sirius and James, both of them laughing as if it was the most exciting thing they had ever experienced. They chased the birds through the air for a good ten minutes, James spending a good five minutes of that with his arms out to the side, balancing on the back of the bike, putting complete faith in Sirius that he would not let him fall. It was after these ten minutes that they had to fall back down to the floor as they had noticed some muggles going for a casual stroll in the park. However, when they returned to the ground and started to ride again, they realised that they would have in actual fact, been better off staying in the air for the muggles they had seen were policemen. And they were stopped by them.

They were then compelled to cut the engine on the bike and forced to listen to a list of offences that they had committed: driving without a licence, driving without tax, driving without road insurance, driving without appropriate safety attire i.e. helmets, driving unauthorised through a Royal park, disrupting the peace, disrupting the animals who were in said park, speeding, jumping red lights (for apparently they had been tailed from the city centre) and reckless driving. By the time they had listened to half of the list, James and Sirius had shared a look and a single thought; confound and run. And as soon as the cops announced that it was time to take them into a station and compound the bike, that's exactly what they did.

* * *

Lily walked through the door cautiously, closing it carefully behind her. She felt like she shouldn't be here. That wasn't true of course, she had requested to be here. She had sent a letter, received one back, and had dutifully found her way up to Professor Dumbledore's office in her alma mater. She had always been nervous stepping into the headmaster's office. She had only been in there a few time and usually only when it was something to do with her head duties. She wasn't like James who, when they were at Hogwarts, could probably have called the place his second or third home, having had to be escorted here on multiple occasions when he had misbehaved. But Lily had always been good at school and had not once gotten herself into so much trouble that a trip to Professor Dumbledore was deemed necessary. So now, the setting of the office was still somewhat unfamiliar to her.

She had requested a meeting with Dumbledore for purely selfish reasons, in her mind anyway. Yes she could possibly pass it off to believing that the Order needed more help, new members, but she knew not so deep down that she was really doing this because she didn't want to lose the friendship she had with Alice. She had been thinking about it all day, ever since she had run into her best friend at Madam Malkin's Robes earlier on. She had been unable to tell her anything at all about her life and, even though James had tried to cheer her up about it all, she couldn't shake the feeling that, if she didn't do something, her friendship with Alice would ultimately go the way her friendships with both Hestia and Severus had gone. She really didn't want that to happen. She had been trying to talk herself out of it, knowing that she would never forgive herself if they were hurt because of her unwillingness to lose a friendship, but somehow there seemed to be validation in her mind. And that was probably because she knew that Alice and Frank had already declared that they wanted to help in the war effort anyway. So she had decided to ask Dumbledore if he would consider offering them a place in the Order of the Phoenix.

'Ah Miss Evans!' Dumbledore greeted her, looking up from whatever he was writing at his desk. He put the quill back in the ink well he had taken it out of and laced his fingers together, looking over the top of his half-moon spectacles at her. 'I was surprised to receive your letter. To what do I owe the pleasure?'

'I err…' Lily began, taking a hesitant step forwards, 'I came to ask you a question.'

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at her and tilted his head to the side slightly in curiosity. He unfolded his fingers and gestured to the cushy armchair that sat in front of his desk. 'Then by all means, Miss Evans, ask away.' he said, 'Questions, after all, are one of the great things in life.'

Lily looked to the side in slight confusion at that but ignored it and went forwards to the armchair. 'I don't know if it's my place to say or not.' Lily began, fumbling over her words as she went to sit down. She kind of wished James was here with her because he brought with him a calmness that just made her relax and feel secure. Plus he would know how to word the question right and why hadn't she asked him what to say earlier? Why hadn't she run this idea by him? She shook her head and tried to continue, removing thoughts of him from her head for as much time as possible.

'So, like, the Order.' Lily tried to continue feebly, 'We have more pressure now. We have _two _people who need a, err, constant, twenty-four hour watch and…there's a lot more pressure.'

'Pressure is inevitable, Miss Evans.' Dumbledore said.

'Yes.' Lily agreed. 'Yes it is but…we can help with pressure by releasing some of the load. But that's not saying that some pressure isn't good but with what we're doing, perhaps a little less pressure would be better with everyone because we keep swapping and changing shifts and some people are doing double, even triple, shifts and not sleeping and then they're tired on their watches and that's prime time for an attack and if we're not all alert because it's just all too much then Voldemort will get what we don't want him to get.'

Dumbledore nodded his head slowly. Lily hoped that meant he had understood what she had said. When she became nervous or uncomfortable, she often started to ramble. There were very few people who could actually decipher what she was saying when it came to moments like these. Again, Lily wished James was there to help her unclutter her words and get to her point. But he wasn't. So she tried to do it herself.

'I think we could benefit from more help.' Lily simplified.

'Ah.' Dumbledore said, smiling at her and placing the tips of his fingers together in thought. 'I presume you have a specific person in mind to help relieve this pressure you are obviously feeling.'

'Well…' Lily started, 'I'm not saying I'm feeling the pressure directly but I'm sure there are people who are and-'

'Miss Evans.' Dumbledore interrupted, raising a long hand in the air to stop her. 'Who did you have in mind?'

'Alice and Frank.' Lily said shyly, 'That is, Alice Prewett and Frank Longbottom. They were in my year.'

'I know who they are.' Dumbledore replied, standing up, his hands clasping behind his back and walking over to an apparently empty perch that some sort of bird should be on. 'They are currently enrolled in the auror training programme at the Ministry of Magic are they not?'

Lily nodded but, upon realising that Dumbledore had his back to her, voiced her answer instead. 'Yes they are Sir.' she said.

'Mmm.' Dumbledore said in thought.

Lily sat drawing circles on her knee with her index finger, nervously awaiting Dumbledore's answer. She sat for a minute whilst Dumbledore stood, still not facing her. He didn't speak and Lily was worriedly thinking about what might be going through his mind. Unfortunately what he said, perhaps unintentionally, set her teeth on edge.

'They would make great assets.' Dumbledore murmured quietly.

Lily closed her eyes and let her lips disappear. That was what he had called James and herself and the other marauders at Marlene's party when she had confronted him about his timing in inviting James to join the Order; assets. She had retorted back to him at that point, not holding back and telling him flat that they were people, _not _assets. She hated that word. It made her think that Dumbledore was no better that Voldemort when he used that word. That everyone in the Order of the Phoenix was, to him, disposable. That they were there at his command to bend to his will until they either got themselves killed or he had no use for them anymore. She knew she wasn't right about it though. She knew, however deep down, that Dumbledore would not use someone in this way. Unlike Voldemort, he would always have someone's best interests at heart. Surely that was the case. He would protect them at all costs. After all, he placed enchantments on all the members' homes, as long as they had deeds. He had done that for James and the marauders just recently. That surely showed compassion.

Dumbledore did not notice Lily's trepidation at his mentioning of the word assets and, if he did, he ignored it. He turned around and swept back to his desk. 'I shall look into it Miss Evans.' he said as he sat down.

Lily hesitated. 'Thank you, Sir.' she said.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**


	25. Chapter 24

**Hey guys!**

**So here's chapter Twenty-four but, be warned, the first bit is like fluff central! (I think it's cute but I wrote it so I don't think I can be too objective. But it's cute).**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Four**

'Guess who?' James said, covering Lily's eyes from behind.

Lily held back a small smile, knowing exactly who it was who had 'surprised' her in the St. Mungo's visitor's tea room. It was the last day of her healer training before Christmas and she knew that James was coming to see her today at lunch. She had made sure she was alone at the table, politely explaining to Thomas, who she usually sat with during this break, that she and James wanted to spend the time together alone as they weren't going to see each other until after Christmas, (which was a good couple weeks), all thanks to Lily's family engagements. Thomas had very kindly understood and so, Lily was all prepared to spend the time alone with James in the festively decorated tea room. She was reading a book when her eyes had been covered by 'mystery' hands. Really, even if she hadn't known he was coming, there was only one person it could be and her stomach flipped as she felt herself being encompassed by the smell of beech wood. Still, she couldn't just let him know that she was indescribably happy to see him. She had to play along.

'Hmm.' she said dreamily, 'Gerald.'

James frowned and took his hands off of her eyes, coming round to stand next to her. 'Gerald?' he asked, 'Who the fuck is Gerald?'

Lily smiled innocently. 'My secret lover.' she nodded earnestly, 'I mean, you're great and everything but, Gerald is just much better in bed.'

James' eyes stayed narrowed at her in a teasing manner. 'I highly doubt that.' he stated arrogantly, 'I'm brilliant!'

'But how do you know?' Lily said, continuing to feign innocence, standing up slowly and closing the gap between them. She placed her hand on his chest, clenching her fist and pulling at the fabric of his top as she did. She looked up at his smirking face through her eyelashes. 'I'm your only reference.' she shrugged, a slight pout to her lips as she spoke.

James' smirk grew and he suddenly wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her up and into him, feeling her silently giggle against him. He looked between her eyes as he spoke. 'Because, my love,' he whispered against her lips, 'you, are very hard to please. And I _know_ that you're pleased.' And with that he captured her lips in a kiss, bending her backwards slightly as she draped an arm around his neck, the other hand still gripping his shirt but a little harder, her nails digging in now that he was kissing her deeply.

When they broke apart, James was still smirking at Lily in that handsome way he did. But Lily, liking when he wanted to prove a point this way, continued on with the joke, despite the fact that they were in a hospital tea room and there were people in there who, even after leaving Hogwarts, still had an odd fascination with their relationship. She smiled sweetly at him, blinking innocently and drawing circles on the fabric of his shirt. 'Mmm.' she shrugged as if his kiss hadn't taken her breath away or made her feel all funny inside as it always did, 'How do you know that I'm not easy to please and you just have a hard time getting the job done?'

James chuckled and shook his head. 'Well maybe Gerald can give me a few tips.' he said, letting her go, ending the joke and letting her sit back down at her seat, taking the one next to her. He picked up the book she had on the table, the one she had been reading when he had approached her from behind, and flicked through it. 'So what you been doing today?' he asked her, wanting to know about her day as if was the best news he could receive.

'Not much.' Lily replied, reaching forwards and taking her book back off of James, stopping him bending the spine as he flipped through the pages absentmindedly. 'We've just been consolidating our notes.'

James paused and blinked. 'That sounds _incredibly_ dull.' he responded.

Lily hit him playfully on the arm before going into a small speech about why it was not, in fact, dull, and was instead rather interesting. She had gotten to go over things she hadn't researched in much depth yet and had found out about a few things that she didn't even realise existed. She spoke incessantly about the work she was doing, her eyes lighting up the way they always did when she found a subject she loved, one that was so interesting to her that she could probably shut herself away for a week and only read books about that one thing. She steered the conversation about her healer training programme, James listening to her intently, looking at her with nothing but adoration as she spoke. To him, seeing her this way, so enthusiastic about learning, even if he wasn't, was captivatingly beautiful. It took her a good twenty minutes to exhaust the topic she was on before wondering if anything she had learnt would be useful to the Order, at which point, James told her that it probably would be.

Whilst on the subject of the Order, now in a hushed voice, Lily went on to inform James of the meeting she had taken with Dumbledore, asking him to invite Alice and Frank into the Order. She had expected him to be shocked or to tell her she should have told him about it first or something but he didn't. He just listened to her interestedly, nodding his head at what she was saying and looking at her in a devoted way. So, undisturbed by James' adoring look, the loving one he reserved especially for her, Lily continued on, speaking to him about what she had done and trying to explain her reasons why. And her concerns. She didn't realise the topic would be dropped in a matter of minutes.

'…and I tried to talk myself out of it you know but, they had already said that they wanted to do _something_ to help so, in a sort of 'killing two birds with one stone' kind of thing, them joining the Order would mean that, I wouldn't drift apart from Alice much more than I already have, and she and Frank can also help with-'

'Move in with me.' James said suddenly, cutting her off.

Lily stopped, her eyes wide and on James, Alice and Frank quickly disappearing from her mind in an instant. She gave a nervous laugh, a smile unintentionally tugging at the corners of her mouth. 'What?' she asked, actually having to take a second and wonder if she had heard him right.

'Move in with me.' James repeated slowly, moving his chair closer to hers and taking her hand on the table. He was still looking at her in that way. The way that could make her melt because, all you could see in his warm hazel eyes, was the love he had for her.

'James that's…_really_…out of the blue.' she said, her breathing becoming a bit shallower now he had moved closer to her. Her body shouldn't still be reacting like this to a simple issue of closeness. She wished she could just put it down to the fact that he had just asked her a huge question and _that _was what was making her heart pound, but she knew she'd be lying to herself if she put it _all_ down to that.

'I know.' James nodded, 'Move in with me.'

'I…don't know what to say.' she said, her eyes darting to the table in shock, the smile she had forcing its way out, unable to be contained.

'Say yes.' James said simply, repeating for the fourth time, 'move in with me.' before leaning forwards, leaning into her, and catching her lips in a sweetly passionate kiss.

When he pulled away, Lily had a hard time of regulating her breathing and keeping that god-forsaken smile off of her face. It was something James noticed.

'You can't stop smiling.' he said with a grin of his own, tucking her hair behind her ear as he studied the effect one simple question had on her.

'I know.' Lily breathed, 'And I don't know why.' She almost had a note of excited panic in her voice.

'Because you want to move in with me?' James suggested, placing his hand on her cheek and forcing her to look up into his eyes as he looked into hers. He asked again, something he had always been used to with Lily. 'Move in with me.' he said.

Lily gave a breathless laugh. She was still smiling and shook her head slightly in disbelief. 'I-' she began, but could not go any further with her sentence for James had cut her off with another kiss. His lips moved with hers as if made for her. He gently bit down on her bottom lip, causing her to emit a soft moan in the back of her throat as he knew she would. She placed her hand to his chest again and gripped his shirt as she had done before, fast becoming breathless. They pulled apart for air.

'You know…' Lily breathed deeply, looking to her small hand on his top, 'You're making this _really _hard to say no.'

'Then don't say no.' James replied against her lips. 'Move in with me.' he kissed her again.

This time, Lily found the strength in herself to pull away from him. It was hard to do. He was intoxicating. 'Have you thought this through?' she asked, her expression not one of seriousness but one of unexplainable joy, 'I mean…I'd be _living _with you.'

'And I'd be living with you.' James smirked, 'That's the beauty of it see? We'd be living together.' He kissed her again. Anyone watching them would probably not approve of the public display of affection but he didn't care. He had found instant courage and had made a spur of the moment decision. All he could think about was why he hadn't asked her sooner.

When she had a moment to breathe again, Lily's abundance of questions surfaced, ones she couldn't quell or quieten down. She looked him in the eyes, eyes which were sparkling with child-like excitement and asked again, 'Are you _sure_ you've thought this through?'

James shrugged a little, 'What's there to think about?'

'Well-' Lily began, not finishing her reply thanks to another one of James' convincing interruptions.

He kept his lips to hers, only reprieving for a slight second to say, 'Don't overthink it.' in an instructive whisper, before returning.

Lily's breath was not able to return to her for a good long moment so when she had to take a pause she also took the opportunity to state, 'This is an awfully big step.'

'I know.' James said, the little shrug appearing again to accompany his ever present smirk. He quickly closed the gap between them for a couple of sweet seconds before saying, for the last time, 'Move in with me Evans.'

Lily had a smile on her lips when his joined them again. She couldn't help it. There was something about it all mixed together that sent her spirit soaring; him asking her spontaneously; him asking her continuously, as he had when he had initially wanted her to go out with him. Kissing her at every available moment in what should have been an adult conversation and, lastly, him calling her Evans.

Lily pulled away slightly from his lips to say, 'I'll need to talk to my parents.'

'Mmmhmm.' James hummed, pressing his mouth to hers again.

'And you'd have to talk to Sirius and Remus.' she managed before she was stopped again. When she had another brief second to speak, she breathlessly added, 'And Peter.'

James tipped her head back slightly and continued kissing her, opening her mouth with his tongue and slipping it inside, savouring her taste. Lily took her hand off of his shirt and snaked it around his neck until she could tangle it into his soft messy hair. She felt herself melt to him, and so, it came as quite a shock when he stopped, causing her breath to catch in her throat.

He looked at her with an instant recognition in his eyes, as if it had only taken until now to click. 'Wait. So you will?' he asked, almost disbelieving in her answer, not willing to accept it until he had heard definite confirmation, 'You'll move in with me?'

Lily, with the smile that hadn't seemed to have been able to leave her face since the moment he had rudely interrupted her, bit her bottom lip and nodded her head, slowly at first and then with a definite action.

James wasn't completely convinced. 'Say it.' he almost demanded of her.

Lily exhaled a breathless laugh and looked down to the table and then up to James, through her eyelashes. 'Yes.' she said, 'I'll move in with you.'

* * *

On Christmas day, five people split into four groups. Peter went back home to reluctantly spend the day with his mother. The day was sure to consist of her begging him to move back home because she didn't like the idea of him living in an unsupervised environment. Although she liked Peter's friends, she was still worried that they would corrupt him. To her, Peter was still the little baby bundle she had brought home with her from the hospital. From the day he had been born, she had mollycoddled Peter, something that had only been made worse when Peter's dad left. So Peter really wasn't looking forwards to spending the holiday at home, knowing she would try every which way possible to convince him to move out of the Potter mansion and back into her house in Darwen. He had tasted the freedom that living with his friends had brought, even gaining a bit more confidence in himself whilst living there, and he was damn sure not going to go back to a state where his mother picked out his days attire. So for Christmas day, he would sit and listen to her cry about how her little boy was not yet ready for the world, and count down the minutes until he could return to his room at the Potter mansion.

Remus was spending the day with his parents too. He didn't see them often; more than Peter saw his mum because Remus didn't have to be forced to spend time with his parents, but less than Lily who was still living at home. Remus' parents were very difficult to explain. They loved their son completely but, sometimes, Remus knew it was hard for them to look at him, especially, his dad. Remus' dad was the reason he was a werewolf. He was to blame and nobody blamed him more than he blamed himself. His mother and father, at the time, had almost separated because his mother was beside herself that such a terrible thing had happened to her little boy. It had taken her ages to stop crying and almost six years for her to stop crying during the full moon when she was forced to restrain her only son and lock him in a reinforced basement. She had to listen to her boys screams and howls through the painful transition from human to wolf. It had put tremendous strain on his parents' relationship but, somehow, they had managed to stay together. And that was something that Remus was happy to help keep going. Also, unlike Peters mum, his parents couldn't have encouraged him enough to move out. Then, with the offer from James to live with him, Remus had been able to oblige. Ever since then, he saw his parents once or twice a month if that, usually speaking to them through letters instead. He kept his distance during the time of the month he knew they found unbearable. But as it was Christmas, he sort of had no choice but to visit them. However, as the full moon was still nearly two weeks away, Remus hoped it wouldn't mar their celebrations.

Lily was spending the day at home with her parents too though it wasn't something she was coerced to do, like Peter, or worried to do like Remus. She loved Christmas, the present bit especially, and, even though Petunia and Vernon were to be spending the day with them, she was sure that it would still be good. It was the first time her sister would spend Christmas with her, Heather and Richard as a married woman. The year before, the year she had gotten married, she and Vernon were away on their honeymoon when the holiday came around. That year the house had seemed a bit empty on the occasion without her there. Of course, the atmosphere that Christmas could have made up for the usual tension they had lost for Lily and her dad had been at odds with each other over James. It was at that point when Lily had just introduced him to her parents and, despite her mum instantly liking him as many people did, her dad hadn't. He had been nothing but surly and rude to James when James was trying his hardest to be polite and then, afterwards, had the gall to demand Lily stop seeing him. He had instructed her that she was not to take her relationship with James any further so, Lily having the temperament of a red head and the picked up insolence of James, had left her house with an attitude, going straight to James and staying at his for the night. Even though, when she returned the next day, she had insisted nothing had happened Richard had still been angry with her for the entire week, including Christmas. It wasn't that he didn't believe his daughter because, he knew she wouldn't lie, but it was because he didn't want to accept that his baby girl was growing up. So this Christmas, to Lily, would without a doubt be miles better than the last. All she had to do, was not mention the fact that James had asked her to move in with him for she was sure that would hinder their spirits.

The last party of the five was a pair; James and Sirius. They, unlike the others, had nowhere to go and no family to invite. James was now the last living Potter and quite alone in the world when it came to family and Sirius wouldn't be caught dead socialising with the estranged family he loathed. So both boys only really had each other to spend this day with, something they hadn't quite thought all the way through. It was something they had never done before so they weren't quite sure of what it had entailed before. They would learn through this day what they were missing. Everything they had taken for granted before would soon come seeping through the crack and hit them in the face. They weren't especially prepared for it. It was a shame really; they both loved Christmas.

It started off simply enough. They had both woken up in the bedroom they still shared, despite the fact that Sirius was now nineteen and James eighteen, both well and truly old enough to have their own room. Even Remus and Peter moving in hadn't made them realise that they had the option to their own space. It had just never occurred to them. And when they woke in that room on Christmas morning, they realised something else that hadn't occurred to them.

'What's for breakfast?' Sirius asked, knowing the answer. It was the same for each Christmas he had spent at the Potters. Now that was only, in actual fact, two Christmases' but, as the Potters liked to follow tradition on Christmas day, he knew that there would be the same breakfast surprise waiting for him down in the kitchen.

'What else?' James grinned, almost as excited as Sirius was. The beginning of the day in the Potter mansion was good, especially on Christmas day. 'Pancakes with every topping under the sun!'

The two boys, as if they were still only young teenagers and not nearing their twenties, raced each other out of the room and along the balconied hallway until they reached the Parisian staircase. When here, instead of being civilised human beings and walking down the stairs, they adopted a different approach and slid down the banisters instead. James landed effortlessly on the floor, completely used to such acts as he had grown up doing it. Sirius, who was still relatively new to having a banister you could use as a slide, stumbled a bit on the landing and ultimately ended up on the floor. James stood over him and laughed out loud at his misfortune for a good minute, Sirius glaring at him the whole time, before pulling him up with one hand. He was still laughing though. It was only when they were making their way through the entrance hall, ready to go on the journey through the many rooms before the kitchen when he stopped. But it wasn't because he no longer found it funny. It was because a funny feeling had overtaken him instead.

He paused in his tracks and frowned, turning around to scan the entrance hall. He looked at the staircase, the many doors that were on the first and second floor, not having to do the same with the third as it wasn't visible from where he was. He looked up the chandelier and scratched his chin.

Sirius finally noticed that James wasn't with him anymore and went to stand next to him, looking at what he was looking at. 'What's up?' he asked.

'Something's…missing.' he said slowly, completely at a loss as to what it was, what had caused him to stop so suddenly.

Sirius frowned as well, looking around the entrance hall again, this time with concentration, trying to find what James was on about. After a couple seconds, he began to nod his head slowly. 'Yeah.' He agreed, 'What is it?'

James shook his head, still frowning, unable to put his finger on it. 'I don't…' he began in thought before sudden realisation. 'THE TREE!' he exclaimed, his face dropping in shock.

'What?' Sirius asked, confused.

'The tree!' James said, walking further into the entrance hall and turning around as he spoke as if the Christmas tree would just magically appear behind him, as if it had in actual fact been there the whole time but was just evading him. 'The tree! We always have a tree. We have several trees actually but the tree that's usually here isn't here.' He stopped and turned to Sirius, his arms out in question, 'Where the fucks the tree?'

Sirius looked around the room again, taking a quick scan before looking back to James with an awkward expression. He shook his finger slowly at him. 'You know, Moony did say we'd have to buy the trees.'

James dropped his arms and expression. 'You're just telling me this now?' he asked. He turned his head and continued to talking but more to himself than Sirius. 'I can't believe you have to buy trees. They're usually just here. They just appear.'

Sirius didn't know what to say really. For him, the tree thing wasn't as big a deal as it was to James. Growing up at Grimmauld place, by the time he was six they didn't have trees at Christmas time because the house elf, Kreacher, would more often than not nick the baubles. And Sirius would be blamed. The Christmas trees in that house had cause him more hassle than they were worth so, from then on, Sirius really didn't have the patience for them. Besides trees were not the essence of Christmas. The food was.

'Pancakes?' Sirius suggested, interrupting James' who was deep in thought, his hand running through his hair.

'What's Christmas without a Christmas tree?' he said as a general question, beating himself up for not thinking about it. Of course he had to buy them! What was he thinking? That, as they had done all through his childhood, many lavishly decorated Christmas trees would just appear in the mansion? He should have known they wouldn't. After all, the people who had always prepared Christmas for him were dead. It made sense for everything they did to have died with them. 'How did I not think to get the trees?' he went on absentmindedly.

Sirius shrugged, just really wanting his pancakes now. He knew exactly what he was going to top them with and James' dilemma about the absence of the Christmas trees was holding up his stomachs dream of whipped cream, ice mice, chocolate drops, bertie botts pancakes dressed in a litre of syrup. 'Maybe cause you've never had to before?' he suggested half-heartedly.

James huffed a sigh, looking as though he had just been told off or told some really upsetting news. He tried to brush it off. 'Whatever.' he said, walking back over to Sirius and through the door into the next room saying, 'Let's just go have breakfast.' over his shoulder.

The two boys walked through the treeless mansion to the kitchen. James looked around sadly at each room as they went through them, missing the ten or so Christmas trees he would have passed by now, each with a different colour theme to match the room they were in, layered in ornate baubles and lit candles. The one he missed the most was the one in his mother's sitting room, the room that had been left pretty much untouched since she had died. The tree that she usually had in there, the one his parents had had put up every year in that room and had looked upon with pride, was the one that was usually solely decorated with stupid things James had made for them over the years, the ornaments he had sloppily made as a child. And it wasn't there.

Sirius couldn't grasp how James felt about the missing trees as they walked through the mansion. The clear gloomy expression on James' faces making hardly any sense to him. That was until he walked into the kitchen. When they got into that room, suddenly James' melancholy for the lack of Christmas trees was understandable to him.

They both paused just inside the doorway, looking over to the empty kitchen counter.

'There's no pancakes is there?' Sirius asked, stating an obvious fact. The kitchen was, by no means immaculate, but completely clean of the usual pancake Christmas breakfast. Usually there would have been a heavenly scent filling the kitchen, a stack of pancakes on the counter, the table lain out with the fanciest china the Potters owned, crackers next to the plates and, most importantly, a buffet of any and all pancake toppings you could ever think of. But today, there was nothing. Nothing but a couple of dirty glasses on the kitchen table from the night before, a bit of drink still in the bottom. It was depressing.

'Linda used to make them.' James said with a slow nod in remeberance. 'And Linda's not here anymore.'

Sirius sighed. 'That sucks.' he mumbled.

'Yep.' James replied.

Sirius turned to him with a wistful expression. 'Do you know how to make pancakes?'

'Nope.'

'Guess we're not having breakfast today then.'

'Nope.'

'That sucks.' Sirius said, turning to face the bare kitchen again glumly.

'Yep.' James said, popping the p.

James and Sirius stood in that spot in the kitchen, staring longingly at it, knowing nothing was going to happen, for a good couple of minutes. They didn't know what to do. Sirius was starving but there was nothing to feed him with. James was wondering what else he had forgotten about Christmas day that was going to hit him in the face at any minute. If the rest of the day was like this first part of the morning, then he really wasn't going to enjoy himself. It was when he turned to leave the kitchen that Sirius followed him.

They went back upstairs to shower and change, both of them sluggish in their movements, slow in their walks as if they were sloths. They didn't speak for the rest of that morning, taking an inordinate amount of time with the menial morning routine tasks they had been doing for years. They should have been finally honed skills but, both distracted by their suddenly missing Christmas spirit, they seemed to be having a bit of trouble with it all. James had taken an hour to shower, a very rare thing for him to do when he wasn't in there with Lily, and had taken an extra ten minutes brushing his teeth and drying his hair, messing it up with no particular care. He had taken forty minutes to actually get dressed, putting his shirt on inside out at first and then backwards at least three more times before finally figuring it out. Sirius had taken longer than James to get ready for the day, taking a good hour and a half in the shower which was less unusual than it was for James but still a rare occasion. He had spent forty minutes on his hair alone as, along with his mood, it was just hopeless. Then there was the ten minutes he spent doing his teeth and the extra twenty minutes he took to change, being faster than James in that aspect as he had actually figured out how to put a shirt on properly first time. When they were finished, they went downstairs again.

In an unusual quiet, they opened the presents that Remus, Peter and Lily had left for them in James' sitting room along with the ones they had gotten for each other. Both of them had a considerably smaller amount of gifts than they were used to and they finished in opening them all in minutes rather than the hour it usually took. It was probably selfish of them but, they were both a little disappointed to say the least. They were only half way through what had always been a joyous day for them both and were already wishing for it to be over, wishing for the evening when Remus or Peter would return with a proper Christmas story instead of the despondent day they were now living out.

At about one o'clock, still hungry from having to have missed breakfast, Sirius asked about Christmas dinner.

'Dude we couldn't make pancakes. What makes you think we can make something that even remotely resembles a Christmas dinner?' James asked. He was flicking through a joke book Peter had gotten him, staring at the wisecracks and stories without even a trace of humour on his face.

'I dunno.' Sirius shrugged, shuffling a new deck of limited edition exploding snap cards from Remus. 'Least we know like, the stuff that makes a Christmas dinner. Turkey and veg and…gravy.' he said, with a bit of a yawn. He wasn't tired. Just bored. 'That's more than we knew for pancakes. We could at least try.'

James exhaled a breath and threw the book from Peter on the floor. 'All right.' he said, swinging his legs off of the couch he had been lain across.

They made their way through to the kitchen again and set to work. But they had problems. For one, there was no turkey. James didn't realise that he had needed to buy that too as, in previous years, just like the trees, it had just been there. Then there was no vegetables either. Or gravy. Or stuffing or potatoes or pigs in blankets. Everything they were used to having on a Christmas dinner was nowhere to be found and that was due to the fact that neither of them, in their lives, had gone food shopping before. Things usually just came to them or they ate out. The only thing they were able to find was a large glass jar of cranberry sauce in the back of a cupboard. But they had no idea what they were supposed to do with that and so, thinking that as Christmas dinner was supposed to be a hot, they thought heating it up was a good idea. After they had worked out how to turn the gas on the hob on, they put the cranberry sauce, still in the jar, onto it. Then they sat and watched. They sat and watched as the glass heated up to an unbearable temperature and had eventually cracked, exploding, spraying the kitchen with boiling hot cranberry sauce.

They both blinked. No shock and no surprise, and just turned to each other.

'Maybe I should reinstate Mums rule of, you know, _not_ blowing up the house.' James said, looking at the cranberry sauce that was now dripping down the wall.

'Yeah.' Sirius nodded slowly, 'That might be best.'

Both of them lazily whipped out their wands and with a simple flick, cleaned up the mess they had made in the kitchen. They levitated the broken cranberry jar and the glass that had shattered onto the surfaces and floor into the bin as well. When they had done this, they were still hungry, neither of them having eaten all day, any chocolate and sweets they would usually get as presents also missing as it was usually James' parents that got them those. They had rifled through the near bare cupboards and had only been able to find some trail mix and stale pastry snaps. Absolutely starving, they had put them both into bowls and had sat at the end of the kitchen table, nibbling on them with less than happy expressions. It was dawning on them; they were nothing but spoilt rich boys with no life skills. And for two boys who thought they were brilliantly independent that was hard to handle.

'Maybe we could go out and find somewhere to eat?' Sirius suggested.

'It's Christmas day.' James pointed out.

'Well maybe we could find somewhere that does like a takeaway or something.' Sirius said.

James took a bite of a square piece of stale pastry. 'It's Christmas day.' he repeated in a monotone.

Sirius sighed and shoved a load of trail mix in his mouth, crunching on them with little enthusiasm. 'Can we not just crash Evans'?' he asked, remembering stories Lily had told him of her mums cooking. It sounded delicious. 'Her parents would give us food right?'

James shrugged. 'Her mum would.' he said offhandedly, 'But her dad doesn't really like me going over there. I don't think he'd be too pleased at us just turning up.'

'Why not?' Sirius asked with a puppy dog pout.

'He still doesn't exactly like me.' James said, his eyes widening in remeberance. He had thought that, at Richard Evans' birthday meal, when he had laughed at something James had said about Vernon and had even shaken his hand when he had left that he was coming around to the idea of him being in Lily's like. After over a year it was about time, but whenever he had gone to pick Lily up from her house or drop her off after that, it seemed like his attitude towards him hadn't changed. He had always found a way to get him out of the house as quickly as possible and make him feel uncomfortable. It was rather awkward really.

'Yeah but he likes me.' Sirius said cockily, remembering the one time he had met Richard Evans. But that was when he had basically cried in front of him over Jane Potter's death so he really couldn't be sure. Still he could give it a go.

'Course he likes you.' James scoffed, picking up another stale pastry cracker, 'You're not the one doing his daughter are you?'

'Thought he didn't like you cause Lily told him how we used to bully Snape?' Sirius frowned.

James took a reluctant bite out of the pastry. 'Well that too. But I'm sure the others not getting me any brownie points either.' he commented.

But Sirius only heard one word. 'Ooh brownies.' he said dreamily.

James chuckled. They sat there in quiet for a minute.

'Does he know you're sleeping together then?' Sirius asked.

James thought for a second. 'Merlin I hope not.' he said, 'I'm pretty sure he'd kill me.'

'But you could stun him.' Sirius suggested.

'Then he'd kill me twice.' James said.

Sirius chuckled. They were quiet again.

'We're just big kids aren't we?' Sirius said out of the blue.

'Well you are.' James joked. But Sirius was serious.

'I mean it.' he said, looking rather sad in himself. 'We're spoilt rich kids. We have no idea how to take care of ourselves. I can't cook. You can't buy trees-'

'I'm pretty sure I could buy trees if I remembered.' James said.

'Pete's more of a grown up than we are!' Sirius stated bluntly, not liking the fact. 'And that's something I never thought I'd say!'

James looked confused. He threw his stale pastry on the table, not wanting it anymore, and frowned at Sirius. Sirius rarely spoke like this, always being full of humour and sarcasm and silliness instead so James knew this was something that really bugged him. 'How is Pete more grown up than us?' he asked, leaning back in his chair.

'He moved out of his mum's house.' he said, his eyes looking around the kitchen but not really seeing anything, 'I'd say that's a grown up decision. We've made no grown up decisions.' He looked back to James as if daring him to contest what he knew was true.

James shrugged and thought for a second. 'We joined the Order.' he proposed as an idea for an adult choice. Really it was. Choosing to put your life on the line, to fight for justice, what you thought was right. That was grown up. It wasn't child's play.

'Ok so we've made one grown up decision.' Sirius muttered with a glum pout, 'But Pete's still one up on us. And I don't like that. You name me another grown up decision.' he challenged.

James thought for a minute. Grown up decisions. They were hard to define really. What was a grown up decision? What made you an adult? What made you grow up? What was it that had to click in your life to make you realise that it wasn't all fun and games and make believe? James had believed that, at the end of his fifth year, he had been able to make the conscious decision to grow up, all in aid of trying to win Lily's heart. But he had come to realise that all he had done was decide to stop bullying people. It wasn't a decision that could be strictly classed as grown up. He had just done something that he should have realised was wrong years before. It didn't make him a responsible person or an adult of any sort. The decision to grow up wasn't something you could choose to do. Maybe it was something that was just a circumstance of life. Maybe grown up decisions weren't something that you planned. Maybe they were just things that happened. The Order had after all, just happened to them, if you looked at it retrospectively. One minute they had no idea about the group and the next they were fully fledged members. No bells and whistles, it had just happened. It was spontaneous. Maybe being making adult choices was spontaneous.

'I asked Lily to move in with me.' James said.

Sirius took in a surprised breath and looked at James, pausing. 'Oh…' he said, starting to nod his head slowly. 'I guess…that's…grown up.' He frowned at the table and then turned back to James. 'When'd you ask her that?' he wondered.

'The other day.' James said nodding his head. Sirius was the first person he was telling about this. He had asked her four days ago and, as she had suggested, he _should_ have spoken to Sirius, (and Remus and Peter), about it sooner. But the day after had been the anniversary of his Dad's death so it had been driven from his mind. It was only now that they were on about being adults that it had come back to him. Asking the love of your life to live with you, to him, seemed like a very grown up thing to do.

Sirius nodded again, his tongue in his cheek, not saying a word and giving no hints as to how he felt about it all.

James raised his eyebrows, waiting for a reply. When he didn't get one, he asked, 'Are you ok?'

Again, Sirius nodded. Then he broke a smile. 'She best not cramp my style!' he laughed before dropping his face to one of complete seriousness and stating, 'And I'm keeping the room.'

James laughed back at him. 'Fair enough.'

There was a pause again, the conversation about Lily moving in to the mansion seemingly finished for now. It would probably start up again when Peter and Remus returned and James had to tell them at which point Sirius would have thought up about seventy different rules that Lily and James were to abide by when she moved in, most of which would probably be along the lines of 'don't be having sex in the kitchen' or something similar. For now though, the brief discussion was over.

'I'm hungry.' Sirius moaned.

* * *

**Thanks for reading guys!**

**Review if you'd like! Go on! Make my day!**

**The next update will be on the 31st of August so, sorry but it's a weeks wait. :( gots to write it and I'm a bit stuck.**

**Galindaba**


	26. Chapter 25

**Hey guys!**

**So I've tried to power through the writers block. I dunno how it's turned out really but it was lo-o-o-o-ng to write. :/ I hope you like it anyhow. Just the one chapter today then I'm afraid it's gonna have to be a bit more than just a weeks wait cause I'm going away for a little bit before Uni starts back up again! Yay! Looking forwards to that.**

**So here's your chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Five**

'No.' Richard Evans said, 'Absolutely not!'

'Richard!' Heather reprimanded, 'You can't tell her she can't do it.'

'I can and I am!' Richard replied stubbornly, folding his arms as if the case was closed. 'I'm her father and I forbid it.'

Lily blinked and looked a little sympathetically over at her Dad. 'That's nice Dad.' she said before turning to her mother, the supportive parent, and saying, 'I was thinking just in the new year.'

Whilst clearing up the wrapping paper and things left over from Christmas the day before, Lily had decide to inform her Mum and Dad that James had asked her to move in with him. And reveal that she had said yes. Their clean-up had come to a halt and her parents had sat her down on the couch to talk about it all, her Mum sitting next to her and her Dad pacing around somewhat angrily. Her Mum was fine with it, no objections falling from her mouth. Instead she asked Lily when James had asked her, what part of the country he lived in and when she was planning to move out. She had congratulated her youngest daughter with a smile, knowing that she would be happy living with her boyfriend, a boy she trusted to take care of Lily one hundred percent. Richard had taken a less accepting approach.

'You are not living with that boy!' he told her, pointing his finger demandingly at his daughter.

'I didn't think he'd take it well.' Lily muttered to her mother who was shaking her head disappointedly at her husband.

'Don't worry about it sweetheart.' Heather said, turning back to her daughter, 'What day exactly were you thinking? I'd like to book it off work so I can see you off.'

'Err…' Lily began, thinking about what day would be best. She wanted to be all moved in and settled before her healer training programme started again but she also had to think about any Order assignments she and the boys had been given. James had sent her a letter that morning saying that he had told them all and they were all fine with it, (Sirius was making up house rules as he was writing), and that they said they would help pack up all her stuff if she wanted. Lily wasn't hesitant in accepting that offer. She had a lot of stuff, mainly books, which she needed to bring with her. But now it also meant that when she was thinking of moving dates, it wasn't just herself and James she had to consider but the whole household of the Potter mansion.

'She doesn't need to decide a day because she is not moving in with him.' Richard inputted, taking advantage of Lily's pause in answering.

Heather sighed in exasperation and shook her head. 'Richard you're being ridiculous.'

'Oh I'm being ridiculous am I?' Richard asked in shock, stopping his pacing.

'Yes you are.' Heather replied bluntly, 'You're acting like a spoilt child. Lily is almost nineteen and if she wants to move in with James then that's her decision. We were nineteen when we moved in together.'

Richard's face was stone. 'That's different.' he said.

'I don't see how dear.' Heather said, 'You had no problem with Petunia and Vernon moving in together.'

'They got married first. So did we.' Richard said stiffly before turning to Lily and pointing his finger at her again, 'Don't you be getting any ideas.'

Lily rolled her eyes and put her elbow on the arm of the couch she was sat on, resting her head in her hand.

'And if you recall, Heather, my dear,' he said, turning back to his wife, 'I was not happy about Petunia getting married that young and moving out either.'

'I know dear.' Heather replied, 'But you didn't stop her.'

'The day we met that man and he asked her to marry him.' he muttered, apparently still a bit sore about that even though it was over two years ago and Petunia and Vernon had since tied the knot.

Richard wasn't one to let things go. Lily knew that all too well. After all, she had been with James for more than a year and her father still didn't particularly approve of him purely because, when she was in her first few years of Hogwarts, still friends with Severus, they had regaled stories of how James Potter was an arrogant bully. Richard had remembered all these and, as he had liked Severus, when he'd met James he had used them as an excuse to not give him a chance. He hadn't even shaken his hand when James had very politely offered. Instead he made him feel very uncomfortable. The situation only ended when Richard had asked what would happen if James suddenly decided to bully Lily, and James had very assertively told him that that would never, ever happen. But even after proving himself on more than one occasion to be polite, kind and charming, Richard still hadn't let his disapproval waver. That had actually only happened once at Richards birthday meal but he had been drunk and so proclaimed it didn't count.

'Dad?' Lily started cautiously, leaning forwards and resting her forearms on her legs. 'I love you and everything but, I _want_ to live with James.'

'No.' Richard stated bluntly.

'Dad-'

'No Lily.' Richard repeated, 'I have said it once and I'll say it again. You are not moving in with that boy. I forbid it. You are too young to be thinking about such things. If you live with him he will expect certain things of you. I've already told you this. He is after one thing.'

'He's had that one thing.' Lily said, effectively telling her Dad that, all his worries of James taking his baby girls innocence, had been realised. His youngest daughter was committing to a boy he still did not particularly like. It was something no father wanted to hear of his daughter. For a son it wouldn't be the same but, for a daughter, the father thought only of the consequences.

Richard turned an odd puce colour and sputtered a few nonsensical words before storming out of the room and slamming the door behind him.

Lily and her mother sat in a short silence as they listened to Richard thud up the stairs and into the bathroom, slamming that door behind him as well. They looked at each other.

'Maybe that wasn't the best thing to tell him sweetheart.' Heather said eventually.

Lily shrugged, shaking her head absentmindedly. 'Well what did he think?' she said, 'I've stayed over at James' more times than I can count now and it wasn't like he didn't know where I was.'

'I know sweetie but, to your father, you are still that little girl who used to tug on his hand and present him with a new book for him to read to you at night.' Heather said.

'But I'm not.' Lily said, a harsh reality that she had had to grow up, more than her parents had realised. Sure to her father, news that she was moving out and sexually active with her boyfriend meant that she was no longer his little girl and growing up too fast but, to Lily fighting in a war, fighting for her right to live, was what determined that for her.

'But to your father you are.' Heather said gently, 'You've always been a daddy's girl Lily. It must be hard on him to realise that you don't need him as much anymore. That you are grown up enough to move out and survive on your own.'

'Well did he expect me to live here forever?' Lily asked.

Heather rubbed her daughters shoulder. 'I think he just wanted as much time as possible when you were nothing but his little girl.'

* * *

In the new year, on the fourth of January, the boys headed over to Lily's parents' house in Cokeworth, (the nicer part of it), to help Lily pack up all of her things ready to move into the Potter mansion. They tried to get an early start, something they had also tried to do when moving Remus into the Potter mansion but, just like those times, the fact that they were unable to wake Sirius up for about an hour and a half, slowed them down. So, instead of getting there at half ten like they had planned, they didn't arrive until twelve, something James wasn't happy about. He didn't exactly love the idea of being late to see Lily for two reasons. One: he knew her dad wasn't too happy about her moving in with him anyway and he was sure being late to get the process started wasn't going to help him come around to it. And two: he hadn't seen Lily since he had asked her to move in with him. That was exactly two weeks ago now and, although they had been writing to each other every day, he _needed_ to see her.

When they approached her house, after having apparated into the park a little way away, it became apparent that she had missed him too. They were walking past the short hedge that lined the Evan's property when the front door flew open. Lily came out and, just as James was making his way through the little gate into the front garden, threw herself into his arms. He laughed a little bit as he suddenly realised what had happened, stepping backwards a little bit from the full force of her bounding into him, and fastened his arms around her tightly, pulling her up and into him, lifting her off of the ground slightly.

'You're late!' she said, her head resting on his shoulder as she gripped him as tightly as he was her.

'Sorry.' James apologised, smelling her hair, and lowering her to the ground but still keeping that tight hold on her, 'We had to get Sirius up.'

'You make it sound like it was hard.' Sirius said with a yawned.

'We _literally_ had to drag you out of bed and shove you in the shower.' Remus said pointedly to Sirius.

Sirius yawned, shrugging again. 'Like that's anything new.' he said. He turned back to James and Lily who were still holding their embrace and looked at his watch. They were obviously having a very private moment, just holding each other, something Sirius didn't particularly understand at this point in his life, but still allowed them a minute or so to finish whatever type of odd hug feelings they were having.

Realising this too, realising the bubble James and Lily had placed themselves in, Remus looked around the neighbourhood interestedly to allow them their privacy. Sirius yawned. Peter unashamedly stared at James and Lily and Sirius yawned again.

'Jeez get a room.' he said eventually, rolling his eyes and kicking a stone on the ground.

James released Lily from his grasp, keeping an arm around her waist as he turned to look at Sirius. He smirked. 'Jealous much?' he said.

Sirius raised his eyebrows at James. 'Whipped much?' he retorted.

'Ok.' Remus said, cutting in and speaking to Lily. 'I assume your room is _in_ the house?'

'Ah yes your room.' James said, turning back to Lily, closing their bubble again to speak to her.

Remus rolled his eyes as he shook his head and Sirius made a big questioning gesture as to why this was happening, mimicking only seconds later, hanging himself by pulling his hand to the sky and letting his head loll about on his shoulders. Remus pushed him to the side in a brotherly manner to get him to stop and Peter tittered at the both of them. Lily and James didn't notice, having their own conversation whilst this was going on in the background.

'I finally get to see your room.' James smirked to Lily stepping closer to her, their bodies pressed together.

Lily looked up to James with a small amused shake of her head. 'I don't see why that's so fascinating to you.'

'Because I get to see where Miss Evans spends her time.' he whispered, his smirk still painted on his face, continuing on conceitedly. 'I get to see where it is you lie at night, just...dreaming about me.'

'I don't think you're going to find anywhere like that.' Lily teased.

'So no diaries of you writing Mrs Lily Potter over and over again.' James asked with a cheeky smile.

Lily thought for a second. 'You're probably much more likely to find diaries that say 'Die, Potter, Die', then you are ones with me fantasising about you.' she said with an innocent smile.

James frowned good naturedly. 'Not sure how to take that.' he said.

'It means she wanted to kill you Prongs and right now, I might take over that dream.' Sirius quipped, appearing by their side, his hands in his pockets as he looked boredly at his best friend.

'Thank you Mr. Sunshine.' James laughed at him, now letting Lily go completely and adopting the same pose Sirius had with his hands in his pockets.

Lily had laughed at Sirius too but, sensing that he wasn't particularly enthralled to be there, probably because his friends _had _had to shove him in the shower to wake him up, she decided to start the day. 'My room's this way.' she said to the boys at large, leading them into her house.

On their way up to Lily's room, Heather Evans greeted them by the dining room door and, after saying an initial hello to James, introduced herself to the other three boys she had never met before. She offered them drinks and told them that, if they needed anything, just to come and ask her which they all politely thanked her for, even Sirius. They then made their way up the stairs but just before they went into Lily's room, they noticed Richard Evans coming out of his with a newspaper. James greeted him with a polite 'Hello Mr Evans' but Richard just glared at him. Lily introduced the other three marauders to her dad, all three of whom waved awkwardly at him, awkward because he didn't once look over to who his daughter was mentioning. Instead, he just continued to glare at James. They were all a bit uncomfortable so Lily simply said they were going to get started with the packing and led them into her room. When in there, Sirius had muttered to Remus that it was obvious that they were wrong in thinking James had just been paranoid about Lily's dad hating him. Richard Evans clearly had a big problem with James Potter.

For the rest of the afternoon, they all packed Lily's room away. It didn't take long. Lily was an unusual packer and, even though she knew she would have help, she had already done the majority of it herself. But there was still a little bit left to do and so the group found themselves a system; Peter set up boxes and taped them up. When they were done, Lily passed Remus and James things to put away. Sirius had proclaimed himself in charge of the pen and labelled said boxes with what was inside them so that it would make it easier for Lily to unpack. However some of the things he had written on the boxes made no sense to her. Still, she reasoned that if she couldn't work out what was in them by Sirius' labels then she could just open them and look. After all, that was the point of unpacking. Upon thinking this she realised that there was really no point in labelling them at all but, when she'd told this to Remus, he shook his head quickly at her. He said that, although she was right, it was the only thing Sirius would do. When he'd said this, it took her a couple of seconds to figure out why they had brought him along in the first place. Then the answer occurred to her; Sirius didn't like to be left alone.

He was now lying on her bed, on his back with his feet dangling over the edge, throwing the pen he was supposed to be labelling the boxes with up in the air and catching it again. He wasn't doing anything productive. He was thinking instead. Or rather, speaking; spouting out a list of rules he expected Lily to adhere too when she'd moved in.

'Rule number thirty-five.' he said, 'You can only whisper in the dining room. Don't speak at full volume.'

Lily looked to James puzzled. But James, (apparently), understood what he was on about and simply clarified Sirius' rule by saying, 'It echoes.' with a nod

'Rule number thirty-six.' Sirius continued, 'The jam is mine. So is the pie. And all the food. Yeah…you can't eat.'

'I can't eat?' Lily asked him as if daring to tell her this again. She looked over to James with raised eyebrows but he said nothing to absolve Sirius' rule. Instead, he shrugged and stood up.

He walked past her, rubbed her arm and whispered, 'Don't worry. I'll sneak you midnight snacks.' with a joking wink before kissing her cheek, walking out of the room and down the stairs to ask Mrs Evans for a drink.

'Rule number thirty-seven.' Sirius went on, not noticing James' departure, 'You must address me as either Sir Sirius or My Humble Knight.'

'Humble?' Remus scoffed, putting a couple books into one of the boxes, 'You're anything but humble Padfoot.'

Sirius' rules went from wacky to ridiculous after that. Lily was sure that half of the things he was saying he hadn't thought through properly and the other half he was just making up to be awkward. She really hoped that this was a joke. She was confident about it being so at the beginning but, as Sirius got further and further into his set of rules, the numbers reaching the high seventies, she began to have doubts. Especially as Remus and Peter were just nodding along, saying nothing to object the absurdities Sirius was placing on her. It wasn't until James returned after having being caught in a conversation with Heather Evans for fifteen or so minutes downstairs whilst he had a drink, that Sirius' rules stopped.

When James entered the room again, it was with a confused frown. All the time he had been downstairs speaking with Lily's mother, he was pretty sure her father was still glaring at him. Now, James knew that he still had a bit of a problem and he knew he wasn't best pleased about Lily moving in with him, but the glaring still made no sense. When he'd left the conversation he was having with Heather to come back upstairs and help Lily, Remus and Peter finish with the packing, he'd smiled politely at Richard as he had passed him. But Richard returned no smile and, instead, narrowed his eyes at him and slowly shook his head, looking as though he was getting ready to murder him. It was baffling.

'Lils.' James said to her quietly, pulling her aside as he did so, 'Is your dad ok?'

'I think so.' Lily said. 'Why?' she asked curiously.

'Because he looks as though he wants to kill me.' James replied, 'I mean I know I'm not his favourite person but I'm in glare city here. Usually he gives me a bit of a reprieve but today…all he's done is look like he wants to murder me.'

'Oh…' Lily said, nodding her head with apologetic understanding, 'Yeah…he's gonna keep doing that.'

'Just cause you're moving in with me?' he asked.

'No because I told him we're sleeping together.' she shrugged.

James blinked at her. 'Great.' he stated, 'He already hates me. You had to make that worse.'

'Look on the bright side.' Lily said, placing her hand on James' cheek. But she said nothing more.

'Which is?' James said, raising his eyebrows.

Lily pursed her lips in thought. 'I'm thinking…'

'Did you know,' came Sirius' voice from the corner. He'd stopped throwing the pen up in the air now, having lost it down the side of the bed, and had clasped his hands over his abdomen. He went on with his thought. 'That if Lily married Remus…her name would be Lily Lupin.'

Remus looked up and over to James and Lily who both looked utterly perplexed at why this thought was running through Sirius' mind, let alone why he'd voiced it.

'She'd be a double flower.' Sirius stated.

Lily looked to James, as did Remus, hoping he would be able to shed some insight into Sirius' mind. After all, he was the one who knew him best, being his best friend for so long. But James just shrugged nonplussed. He had no answers either.

* * *

It was late evening when the boys had finished moving all of Lily's boxes over to the Potter mansion. They would have been done sooner but, last minute, she and James, (but mostly Sirius), had decided that the room they usually shared was too close to the other boys' to reach the level of privacy that they needed. So, they had had to trail around the main balconied hallway and down a few couple side corridors until they chose a suitable replacement room. They would have chosen one sooner but Sirius kept vetoing them, complaining that it was still too close and, if they forgot to put silencing charms around their room, he would hear them at night. And he didn't want to hear them at night. Eventually, with Sirius' approval, they found one on the other side of the balcony to the other boys and down at least three winding hallways to the back of the mansion. James said it was ridiculous them having to trail all the way down there just for Sirius' peace of mind but Lily had cut him off, hitting him on the arm and telling him to shut up. She wasn't even phased by him saying 'ow' and looking at her for an apology. She didn't care. She had fallen in love with the room.

It wasn't like the ones at the front of the mansion which were decorated in rich dark colours, blues and reds and purples. No. This room was bright and light and huge, much larger than the rooms at the front. It was decorated in a simple cream with a light mint highlight and golden adornments. The bed was large and in the centre of the room against the wall; a four poster with a cream frame and gold leaf decorations with mint satin linen creating the hangings and dressing the duvet. On the wall the head of the bed was pressed against, was a door with an ornate golden handle that led to a large, pristinely clean en-suite bathroom with a huge shower and a bath big enough to be denoted as a child size swimming pool. It was one Lily and James could share at least eight times over. Back in the room, there was a large window seat with dozens of scatter pillows, (a perfect place to read in the day), and mint black-out curtains which meant Lily wouldn't be woken up in the morning by the light shining through them as she usually was in the room they had previously occupied. All the furniture in there matched too; the double wardrobe, two chests of draws, the bedside tables, (one on each side of the bed with matching solid gold, goblin made carriage clocks atop them) and the wooden hamper at the end of the bed were all that cream colour with the gold leaf decoration adorning the carved roses and leaves that climbed up the frames. Most importantly, for Lily, either side of the ivory stone fireplace, above which hung an oil painting of a beach landscape, were two large floor to ceiling bookcases, empty and ready to be filled with her collection. Then, there were two satin cushioned arm chairs in front of the fireplace and a small round table in the middle of the two of them with a gold ornate oil lamp on top of it, ready to be lit when Lily curled up in one of them at night with a book. The room was perfect, almost as if it had been there waiting for them to move in. The only trouble was, now, they also had to move all of James' things into that room as well. That was what had taken the time.

It had taken them a good silent couple of hours to move all of Lily's boxes into that room and all of James things as well. James didn't have much stuff surprisingly so they were all grateful for that. If he had as much as Lily did then they were sure they would have been there well into the night. But fortunately, they were finished by half past seven. When all the boxes were safely away in there and when they had all managed to navigate their way back into the main part of the mansion, they made their way down to the kitchen to try and find something to eat. But when they got to the kitchen, they were all too exhausted move any further, even the ten or so yards to the kitchen cupboards, just collapsing on the table instead, moaning that they were hungry rather than doing anything about it. In the end, Lily couldn't stand it any longer and had risen to look in the cupboards. She was shocked by what she found.

'James you have nothing in these cupboards.' she said, directing the question at him quite simply because, though Remus, Sirius and Peter lived there, and now she did too, it was James' mansion and he alone was the one who had the funds to feed them all.

'Oh yeah…' James said, looking at Sirius, 'We found that out on Christmas day too.'

Sirius nodded with a pout, backing up James statement.

'What did you do on Christmas day then?' Remus asked with a tired frown.

'We found some trail mix and stale pastry.' James said depressingly, 'Then we filled up on the food Pete's mum made him bring home cause she was worried he wasn't eating right.'

'Is that where all that went?' Peter asked. His mum had sent him home with cold turkey cuts and sausages and then had put together a hamper of sandwiches, crisps, savoury snacks and cakes. Sirius and James had eaten it all when Peter had gone to bed, exhausted from having to hang out with his mother all day. They hadn't told him what they had done until just now. Peter had just assumed he had misplaced the basket. He was often losing things.

'Yep.' Sirius grinned, patting his stomach happily, 'And it was gooood!'

'Why don't we just go out to eat?' Remus proposed before recanting his statement with a muttering of, 'Should probably figure out how to use my legs again first though.'

James chuckled a laugh and nodded his head at Remus.

'Well I could make you all dinner.' Lily suggested with a casual shrug, now leaning on the kitchen counter with her hands gripping the sides.

All the boys looked at her; Remus and Peter, both frowning slightly in shock. James had a look of remembrance about him and Sirius had his mouth open in complete surprise.

'You can cook?' he asked her rather loudly.

'Yeah she can.' James nodded thoughtfully, remembering the one time she had cooked for him. Of course, he had never actually gotten to eat it because her dad had walked in and silently forced him to leave. That was when he had only just met her parents over a year ago now, after Petunia's wedding.

'What?' Sirius gasped, still speaking loudly, 'Why didn't we ask her to move in sooner?'

Lily narrowed her eyes at Sirius. 'You're a pig.' she said with a shake of her head.

'Thank you.' Sirius smiled, taking it as a complement rather than an insult.

She shook her head at him again but went no further with it. 'Do you want me to make you dinner then?' Lily asked the boys at large.

They all looked at each other and silently agreed before turning back to Lily and simultaneously answering with a resounding, 'Yes.'

Lily laughed. 'Ok, well we're gonna have to go shopping.' she said, speaking specifically to James.

James exhaled a puff of air. 'Ok.' he replied and pushing himself to standing and stepping out from where he had been sat at the table. 'Let me get my wallet.'

Sirius used a cough to badly disguise the word, 'whipped', earning him a laugh and a titter from Remus and Peter respectively and a whack around the head from James as he told him to grow up. After that, the couple went food shopping, something James had never done in his life, leaving the other three boys in the kitchen to await their return and joke about how much trouble James was in.

* * *

Lily took James to the supermarket near her parents' house as, apparently, he had no idea of a similar place in the wizarding world that was open at this time. Lily was a bit cautious about suggesting it as Gringotts was closed and there was no way for James to exchange his galleons for notes. However, James surprised her by saying that since he had been dating her, he had kept out a supply of muggle money in his room. He had more than enough there to do Lily's parents shopping for three months. She shook her head at his clear density when it came to the amount the muggle money added up to, in disbelief that he _still_ hadn't bothered to work out where the numbers were on banknotes that showed you the value. Still, she digressed and the pair set out for the shop.

James was like an excitable child the minute they step foot in the supermarket. He had insisted on pushing the trolley but, after the third time he had purposefully jumped up on it and skidded it down the aisles, running over peoples feet, Lily had confiscated it off of him. He sulked for a minute but, when they reached the fish counter, he found his energy again. He picked a fish up, making it talk to Lily in silly voices. She had laughed and dodged him from making it kiss her but, eventually, they were told that they had to move along and also, buy the fish as James had manhandled it for a good ten minutes. Not actually wanting the fish, James had sneakily put it back when the man at the counter wasn't looking and had then made Lily run like hell down a couple of the aisles to hide. Then when they were down the fruit and veg aisle, James kept putting cumquats in the trolley just because, to him, they had a funny name. Lily had to keep putting them back.

His childish behaviour hadn't stopped for longer than a minute and Lily was in stitches for the whole of the shopping trip. The only time she had a moments rest from the pain of laughing was when they were at the tills, ready to pay for the mound full of food James had shoved in the trolley, (a lot of it still cumquats). James had remembered that Sirius would most probably want pie and so he went off to find some, leaving Lily alone in the queue with his wallet, to pay for the food if it came to it.

She was stood day dreaming, laughing to herself over James' antics from the past hour when her thoughts were interrupted by a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see who it was and received a small shock when she recognised the girl that was there. It was her best friend from years and years ago, when she was only in primary school, no more than eight years old. She was called Katie Ronalds and she hadn't seen her in in eleven or twelve years because, when they were just moving into their third year, her family had moved away. The year she had moved away was the year she had realised she was a witch, having met Severus not long afterwards. It was such a shock to her to see her now, in this supermarket and back in Cokeworth.

'I thought that was you.' Katie smiled.

'Oh my god Katie!' Lily said, her eyes wide at the sight of her, 'What are you doing here? You moved years ago! Don't tell me you've moved back?'

'Actually I have.' Katie replied, 'I'm working in our old primary school.'

'Really?' Lily asked, 'Why?'

Katie laughed at her answer but didn't respond to it. Instead she asked her a question of her own. 'So what are you doing here? Shopping for your parents?'

Lily smiled to herself, a warm feeling setting in her stomach as she said aloud for the first time, 'Actually no. I just moved in with my boyfriend.' Her smile came out on her face as if she was unable to help it. She went on, half laughing to herself as she explained, 'And he had no food in the cupboards so…'

'Oh where does he live?' Katie asked, leaving it a minute before posing the question as it was obvious that Lily was indulging herself in her mind over who, to Katie, was a mystery man.

'Wales.' Lily said unthinkingly.

Katie frowned. 'Wales?' she questioned.

'Lils!' James called, practically running over to her in an excitable state. He was holding a little tin can in his left hand and was laughing madly to himself as he spoke, arriving next to her halfway through his sentence. 'Lils we just have to get this! Look it's called spotted dick! That is way better than a cumquat.'

Lily hung her head. She should have been embarrassed about James running over to her, childishly poking fun about the name of a dessert, but instead, she had a swelling in her heart that she couldn't quite explain.

'Hello.' Katie said to James, who hadn't quite noticed she was there, in the middle of a conversation with Lily. Instead, he was unashamedly chuckling over the spotted dick, pointing to the words and trying to get Lily to look at them with him.

James looked up to her, an infallible grin on his face. 'Hi.' he said, looking to Lily for an introduction. But she was still laughing into her hand, trying to smother he giggles. So, instead, he offered her the can of pudding. 'Spotted dick?'

Katie laughed and it was then that Lily saw fit to give the introductions her laughter had kept her from.

'James this is Katie.' she said to him, 'She's an old friend of mine. Katie, this is my boyfriend James who is now going to go put the spotted dick back.'

James' face fell and he looked to Lily with an over-dramatized sad face. 'What?' he asked, 'Come on Lils! Spotted dick!'

'No.' Lily said, her eyes glancing up to the ceiling, shaking her head but still smiling.

'Aw.' James replied dismayed. Still he dutifully walked away to go and put the tinned dessert back.

Lily turned back to Katie bit her lip, trying to hold back a giggle. 'He's such an idiot.' she said.

'He's very cute.' Katie replied, not failing to notice Lily's rose coloured blush creeping into her face at the compliment she had given the boy who was obviously very special to her. It was very clear to see.

'Don't tell him that.' Lily warned good-naturedly, 'His head's big enough as it is.'

The two girls stood and had a conversation in the queue for the checkouts, a queue which didn't seem to be getting any smaller thanks to a problem with an item a customer in front of them was having. Still, it gave the girls time to catch up on twelve years of events that they had missed. Lily of course, had to fib a little bit, unable to tell her old friend that she was in fact a witch and had attended one of the most prestigious magical schools in the world, learning about it via a boy down her street. She couldn't tell her everything but she told her bits. She said she had gone to a select boarding school in Scotland and had been accepted onto a training programme in a hospital to become a healing physician subsequent to that. She said she also did a bit of volunteer work for her local community, making her seem so much more the humanitarian than she actually was. In return, she learned that after Katie had moved down to Oxford with her family, she had been placed in a private school which then led her onto an apprentice that helped college graduates into teaching if they didn't want to take the university route. That was how she had ended back in Cokeworth. Her family had never sold the house they had in the city and so, she had a ready-made living situation. Lily had said that she seemed to have it all figured out to which Katie replied the same sentiment.

'You seem to be very settled too you know.' Katie said, looking to the trolley full of food that Lily was getting to stock the cupboards in her new home, 'Are you happy?'

Lily thought for a moment, pausing on Katie's words. She had just moved in with the boy she loved with all her heart. She might go so far as to call him the love of her life but would be too worried to say it out loud, fearing jinxing it or something. She couldn't quite put her finger on it but she guessed that Katie had hit the nail on the head. She hadn't seen her in twelve years and yet, right away, she could tell that Lily was settled. But it was more than that. James made Lily feel so safe and secure. As if, whilst he was with her, nothing bad would ever become of her. She was deeply, madly in love with him. Irrevocably so. Even if he was a total idiot. So was she happy?

She nodded her head in answer to Katie's question. 'I am.' she said.

'LILS!' came James' excited voice again. This time he was literally running towards her.

'Oh god.' Lily grimaced, still smiling even so and looking to Katie apologetically even though she was laughing.

James skidded to a halt next to Lily. 'Lils!' he said, a tad breathless, 'I know you said I couldn't get the spotted dick but look!' He shoved a can under her nose and pointed to the words, much like he had before. 'This one has nuts Lily! Spotted dick…_with nuts! _Come on! You can't make this stuff up Lils! We have to get it! Sirius is gonna _piss _himself at this. _Please_?'

Lily bit her lip, holding in the laughter that was sure to burst forwards any minute. She nodded her head, not trusting herself to say anything. He made a championing gesture and voiced his victory before thanking her and kissing her on the cheek quickly before saying that now, this time for real, he was going to go find the pie. Though he did add on the side that if he found any more funnily named food then he was definitely going to get it.

They were at the supermarket for only fifteen minutes more. James returned with an assortment of pie and a few more cumquats just as Lily reached the till. Their shop reached a total that Lily had never seen spent on food before but James didn't bat an eyelid and handed over the cash. When they had packed it all away in bags and had stored it back into the trolley, they said goodbye to Katie and went on their way. Lily had been a bit worried about how they were going to get it all back to the mansion but James solved that problem with a simple solution. They stole the trolley and apparated with it back into the Potter mansion.

James pushed it into the kitchen and the first thing he did was take out the tin of spotted dick with nuts and had calmly placed it in front of Sirius. He didn't get it at first, staring at James as if he had finally gone mad but credit due to James, he kept a straight face and told Sirius to simply read the label. His straight face fell through after that because Sirius had started to laugh madly at the same childish joke James had. In fact, he had laughed so hard, he fell off of his chair. They didn't stop for half an hour and for the rest of the night, they would randomly burst out laughing to each other, each time they caught each other's eye. They were both, in Lily's opinion, truly idiots. But they were her idiots. And that was a nice feeling.

* * *

**Ok so I will update on the 12th of September. Sorry it's a long wait!**

**Thanks for reading! Hope it was ok.**

**Galindaba**


	27. Chapter 26

**Hey everyone!**

**I am so so so so so sorry about the late update. I actually forgot what the date I'd set was and I stupidly didn't write it down. Note to self: your memory is not good. So sorry again. :( Please forgive me? I'll give you two chapters as a sort of peace offering?**

**Thank you to my reviewers! That last chapter had the most reviews I've had for a chapter, (if that makes sense). Granted a few of them were update reminders but still, make me happy! And it also makes me happy to hear some of my readers from Five Minutes are reading Seven Moments! (Hello to Courtney! :D ) So yes! Just thank you for reviewing! I love reviews! :D**

**Anyway here's chapter Twenty-Six!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Six**

Lily living in the Potter mansion didn't come without its problems. For the most part, everything was fine. They all got on well, something that wasn't particularly a surprise as technically they had already all lived together before. Of course, that was with another couple hundred students in Gryffindor tower but the situation was practically the same. The only difference was the fact that the four boys did not share a room with each other now. They each had their own, apart from James who shared with Lily. Still, everyone had their own personal space to go to whenever they pleased but it wasn't like they all shut themselves up in their rooms and did not come out. During the day, the group spent their time in the rest of the mansion as there were plenty of places to go if they wanted to escape on their own. However, if they ever did need a secluded break from each other, whether that be Remus from Sirius, Lily from Sirius, Peter from Sirius, anyone from Sirius, (he was rather annoying at times), then there was always _somewhere _to go. But despite the fact that they all had whatever freedom they desired, their own things to do and the fact that they didn't live out of each pockets, there was still a problem. A problem between Lily and James. And unfortunately, the problem they had, they had run into before at Hogwarts.

The issue was surrounding the full moon. It had only ever come up once before, when Lily had just found out about Remus and what James, Sirius and Peter had done to help him. At the time, she had been staying in the boys dorm in James' bed, (something that was actually forbidden at Hogwarts but James was a bad influence on her when it came to rule-breaking). She had been doing this because she was being made to feel rather unwelcome in her own dormitory by Hestia who she had fallen out with over the whole thing. The girls prejudices' had come out and had eventually destroyed their friendship. Anyway, when the full moon had come around and Lily had enquired as to whether she could, once again, stay in the same room as James, and he had told her that he would not be there if she did. Lily had instantly become worried that something could happen to James, to any of them, whilst they were out there frolicking around with Remus as a werewolf. It wasn't exactly safe. James had reassured her they would all be fine but it didn't stop Lily waiting up in the common room for James, Sirius and Peter to return. And though James had thought the situation had been dealt with then and nothing similar had happened since, Lily not really being around for the full moon after, he was mistaken. Lily moving into the mansion had changed the circumstances and that was something that he didn't fully realise.

After the first night of the full moon, in the late hours of early morning, James, Sirius and Peter marched tiredly into the Potter mansion and, after each grabbing themselves a snack from the cupboards, they went to their separate rooms to collapse in exhaustion. They said goodnight/good-morning on the Parisian staircase, Peter and Sirius being able to go straight into their rooms, whilst James had to trail all the way to the back of the mansion to his and Lily's. He tried to be as quiet as he could whilst he made his way there, sure that she would be sound asleep and not wanting to wake her when he entered the room and climbed into bed. But, when he walked in, closing the door behind him as quietly as he could, the first thing he noticed was the bed hadn't actually been slept in. Lily's sleeping form was missing and, even though he knew, thanks to Dumbledore's protective enchantments, that no harm could've come to her here, his stomach still dropped, his eyes wide.

'Lily?' he said, looking around the room. If only he had done this when he walked in, he need not worry. The curtains were open but it was early January and still dark so there was an oil lamp burning on the small round table between the two arm chairs in front of the fireplace. Next to the lamp were two closed books and sat in the chair, illuminated by the soft glow of the flame, was Lily, another book open on her lap. When she heard her name, she looked up.

'Yeah?' she said, marking her place in her book with a bookmark but not closing it.

James sighed in relief, clapping his hand to his heart and hanging his head backwards. He took a couple moments silence and breathed before looking back up and moving further into the room. 'What are you doing up?' he asked, taking off his jacket and throwing it on the bed. He shoved his hands in his pockets and moved over to her, his eyes heavy. 'It's half six in the morning.'

'I know that.' Lily replied, now closing her book and setting it down atop the other two that were on the table. She had sat up, waiting and reading for eight hours straight. She had managed to read the other two cover to cover and had just started her third book. She was only twenty pages in when James appeared.

'Then why are you still up?' he asked, completely baffled by why she was awake. His words came out slightly harsh, even though he didn't mean it at all. He was just tired.

'I wanted to make sure you were ok.' Lily said, picking up on the hard tone in his voice.

James closed his eyes and shook his head slightly. He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. 'I'm fine Lily I'm just tired.' he said, holding back a yawn. He didn't want to talk much more about it, just needing to sleep now. 'I just need to go to bed. You've obviously not slept either so you do to so…yeah bed.'

He turned around and walked over to the door that led to the en-suite bathroom they had. When he got to the door, he paused and turned to look at Lily. She had stood up and was putting the books back on the shelves. She was already dressed in her nightclothes, a black cotton camisole nightdress, and probably had been for quite a while, awaiting his return. He sighed when he looked at her. She turned around with a wondering look.

'You ok?' she asked him.

He nodded his head, looking her up and down as he did. 'You err…don't need to wait up for me by the way. When it's the full moon. Just don't worry about it.' And with that, he went into the bathroom to wash and do his teeth before settling down and joining Lily in bed. In his mind, that was it. That should have been the end to the situation, that same way it should have ended at Hogwarts. Lily would no longer wait up for him. But just like at Hogwarts, he would net get the result he expected.

* * *

Later on in that day, just before twelve, after Remus had come in from the full moon, too weak to climb stairs or apparate anywhere, James and Sirius helped him up to his room and Peter brought him some food and drink. Lily watched them from the balcony as they did, worried about what state Remus was in. She could see he had a cut on his shoulder. It was something that had happened as the boys had left him at the near end of the night, only been ten minutes before Moony turned back into Remus, just enough time for him to hurt himself. Lily followed them all to Remus' room and wanted to offer her help but James, Sirius and Peter, all used to dealing with this for many years, had everything covered. They patched Remus up and gave him a sleeping draught, drawing the curtains with a flick of their wands and left him to it. Peter had made sure there was a sandwich on his bedside table and water for when he woke up. Lily had nothing to do but watch them from the doorway until they all left the room when she was steered by the elbow by Sirius down the hallway.

After they'd finished and they were sure Remus was well settled, the four of them who remained went off to an Order meeting at Sturgis Podmore's Fiancée's house, something everyone was one hundred percent positive she knew nothing about. She wasn't allowed to know. It was standard Order procedure. However, her house could be used for Order meetings when she wasn't there and right now, as Sturgis had informed people when he offered his house for the gathering to take place in, she was at her mothers and would not be back for days. It gave them the all clear for the secret group to convene.

The couple lived in a small picturesque village in Lincolnshire named Wrangle. It was a quaint little village that was set next to the main road which took you to a seaside town if you continued on it. It was surrounded by an expanse of fields and farm lands and open plan landscapes. There was even a field of cows which the village's central road ran around in a semi-circle. The houses than ran alongside that road were grand and all rather sizable but none of them belonged to Sturgis. These houses stopped when they reached a tiny church which was set on a small T road in the heart of the village, opposite which was a pub on one side and a village hall on the other. It looked to be a rather community based town. There were plenty of trees in the town, though still bare thanks to the winter season, crowded certain edges of the roads, especially near that little church. During spring, or summer, or even autumn the colours that blossomed would be breath-taking. It seemed very much like a place to settle down in, whether you were a muggle, a witch or a wizard, and that was assumedly why Sturgis' fiancée had chosen the village to live in. If only Sturgis had shared her sentiment. Lily saw what she knew he didn't care about though. To her, Wrangle seemed like the kind of place you would see doddering old ladies and humble old men settling down in, living out their retired years in peace. She could see herself in a village similar someday, with James.

The four of them apparated into the village a short way away from Sturgis' house near the church, the bells of which were ringing out to signify the end of the Sunday service. They nicely masked the loud cracks there transportation mode created. Together, they followed directions to Sturgis' house, the walk seeming much longer than it actually was thanks to their collective tiredness and Sirius' constant complaining that the air smelt bad. He had shut up about that though when James had told him that it smelt no worse than he did last night, giving him a mischievous look. Peter had laughed and Sirius' expression had dropped, James grinning through his exhausted state with a glint in his eyes. Lily had no idea what they were on about though and, when she asked, she didn't get an answer. Sirius had cut James off before he could explain what it was all about. He didn't particularly want the news that he had, mistakenly, rolled around in some horse manure that night whilst in dog form, thinking it to be dirt. If James had been a bit more with it, even if Peter had, then Sirius wouldn't have been so lucky for the subject to be let go. The group's tiredness reprieved him from embarrassment for now.

When they got to Sturgis' house, a little bungalow just big enough for two, they were greeted by him jovially at the door and were lead inside. Most of the Order was already there and, from first glance, they were now only waiting for Dumbledore, Alastor Moody and Mundungus Fletcher. The meeting wouldn't start before they arrived so people had taken to talking to each other, as they usually did, most of the Order being good friends outside of business. Benjy Fenwick and Marlene McKinnon were having what seemed to be a private conversation by the brick fireplace, Marlene seemingly a bit upset and Benjy trying to console her. Dorcas Meadowes was speaking, as was usual at these meetings, with Arabella Figg on a cushy but faded green couch in the corner her, the small bag of sweets that she usually carried with her on her lap. Stood just in front of them was Aberforth Dumbledore speaking to Professor Minerva McGonagall and Elphias Doge. Hagrid, was sat squashed in a corner near them, his head still nearly touching the low ceiling that the bungalow had, only inputting the occasional word here and there to the conversation. Lastly four people stood a short distance away from the door. There was Gideon and Fabian Prewett and-

'Alice! Frank!' Lily said, rather loudly, causing heads to turn in their direction. She looked down and blushed a little at all eyes on her but, as soon as they turned back to their own conversations, she quickly made her way over to her best friend and embraced her in a hug. James followed her. Sirius and Peter however, went to go speak to Benjy and Marlene, (to see if she was ok), and Sturgis went over to Dorcas and Mrs Figg, vying to nick some of the buttermint creams Dorcas had with her.

Lily and Alice embraced in a hug the minute they were close enough, having not seen each other since before Christmas, that day in Madam Malkin's robes. It was also the day that Lily had gone to Dumbledore about Alice and Frank possibly joining the Order and obviously, from their presence here today, he had obliged her request. However, they didn't have much time to discuss it all before the Order meeting started though, to say anything more than initial hellos and how are yous, as it was only moments later that Dumbledore knocked on the front door, entering politely, and Alastor Moody had apparated right into the centre of the room holding Mundungus by the scruff of the neck, all pleasantries done away with.

'Easy!' Mundungus said, shrugging away from Moody's grasp, 'I paid a lot of money for this coat.'

'You stole it from Fabian's place and you know it!' Moody snapped, obviously not in the mood for any niceties. Then again, he rarely was.

'Actually he gave it to me.' Mundungus said, sorting out the collar that he had pulled out of Moody's hold.

'Well after half a year Dung, I didn't think it right to take it back.' Fabian grinned at Mundungus, not particularly caring in the slightest that a rather nice jacket of his had been stolen by the con-artist. He and his family were more than happy to help those in need and he knew that Mundungus' coat had been ripping. Truth be told he had left it out in plain sight, knowing the con-man would see it, want it, and immediately take it. It had only been now that it was pointed out that he even acknowledged the coat was his to begin with.

Mundungus nodded his head jerkily at Fabian, glancing around the room quickly to see who was there and, possibly more importantly, to see if there was anything of value in the room. There wasn't. But he did notice Alice and Frank.

'Who are they?' he said, pointing over to the pair of them, a look not too far away from contempt appearing on his face.

'They are our new members, Mundungus.' Dumbledore said serenely as he swept into the centre of the room, Sturgis, who had greeted him at the door walking next to him, 'Alice Prewett and Frank Longbottom.'

'And I suggest you get used to them Mundungus because they will be on assignments with us for now.' Moody growled at him. He turned his head to him and glared at him testily until he moved his head around annoyed, hanging it under Moody's scowl.

Dumbledore allowed himself a chuckle, clasping his hands together in amusement as he looked upon Alastor and Mundungus contrasting relationship. He then looked around the room. 'Shall we?' he said.

In a noisy clamber, the members of the Order of the Phoenix piled into the dining room in Sturgis' cottage. Unlike at Moody's house, it wasn't exactly big enough to host all twenty of them, especially with Hagrid in the mix, but they squashed in and made do. The table in the dining room only had six chairs so not everyone had a seat. Dumbledore did, of course, and so did McGonagall, Elphias, Dorcas and Arabella. The other seat was offered to Moody, next to Dumbledore as he usually sat, but instead he forced Mundungus into the chair, standing watchfully behind him, knowing that he didn't want to be there. That was the norm for him though. It brought many questions as to why he was in the Order of the Phoenix in the first place but, nobody really voiced this. They just accepted it.

The meeting was short and rather informal. It was more of a way to let Alice and Frank know everything that was going on, for them to get the feel of the community that the Order worked off of. They weren't like Voldemort and the death eaters, ones who would sell each other out to protect themselves, who shared no loyal bond to each other but to Voldemort alone. No. The Order members were all friends. Everyone in that room would gladly lay down their own life to save a colleague. They were not just loyal to Dumbledore but to each other as well and this was what Alice and Frank needed to see first-hand, hence the meeting.

They divvied out assignments, the protection details on Dianna Marsket and Ian Jacobs and intel gathering on any other movements Voldemort was making, all doing their best to give leeway to those who needed it. The biggest example was Dumbledore asking James when Remus would be recovered enough and James informing him that, as there was another two nights left, he would need at least four more days from this point onwards to ensure he was back up to full strength. After this had been said, Fabian, Gideon, Benjy, Marlene, practically everyone, had stated that they did not mind taking an extra slot in protecting one of their marks if they were needed. But Dumbledore had quelled their willingness with a simple answer that, now Lily and the marauders had been part of the Order for over a couple of months now, all completing their fair share of work, he believed that they would be able to accommodate Remus themselves. He was now going to let them out on details by themselves, with no supervision from other Order members any more. James and Sirius had high-fived at this, much to the amusement of the rest of the group.

After this, Dumbledore had called the meeting to a close and had informed Alice and Frank that, if they had any question, himself or any other member of the Order would be more than happy to help. Moody had then limped over to them both, who were stood with Lily and the marauders, and informed them that their first detail would start the next day at promptly eleven o'clock. They were not to be late. After a brief nod to James, Lily and Peter and a glower at Sirius, (he still hadn't forgiven him for drawing on his table), he walked away, shouting Mundungus' name as he had noticed him eyeing up an ornamental Faberge egg. As soon as he was out of earshot, the group laughed to themselves.

Alice asked Lily if she was free to go round her house now to catch up and talk about the Order but Lily looked a bit dubious, knowing she had to study for her healer training the next day. Also, she was still very tired, having only gotten a few hours' sleep before James had unintentionally woken her up when he had left her in bed to go help Remus in. She could have gone back to sleep for another hour, she knew that, but she wanted to make sure Remus was ok. Besides, the space that James had left next to her was too noticeable after having his warmth encircling her for a few hours. She found, in winter, the cold was too distracting to actually get some sleep in without him there. So she kind of wanted to go back to bed and have a few more hours' kip. If she went to Alice's now, even though they would just be talking pleasantly and not going out anywhere, would probably still exhaust her in her tired state. And if she was exhausted, she knew that there would be no way that she would be able to stay awake and alert to make sure James got back safely to her in the morning. It was funny; she was more worried about him going out in the full moon than she was when he was out on Order assignments. However, James, sensing that this was something she wanted to do, took measures to try and prevent it.

He persuaded her to go and hang out with Alice, Sirius and Peter helping him along with the convincing, hoping that it would mean she would be fast asleep when he got back the next morning. He had hoped he hadn't had to go through such lengths to ensure this, that it wasn't actually necessary. He had told her that morning that she did not need to worry about him, but he thought it was probably better to be safe than sorry. So he told Lily to go, to have fun, and that he would see her tomorrow after her healer training. He kissed her goodbye and whilst she went with Alice and Frank, he Sirius and Peter went back to the mansion to collapse.

They got up again at around six in the evening, grabbing themselves some food and checking in on Remus as they had done when they initially returned to the mansion. As he was bedridden, they stayed with him in his room, laughing and joking as they usually would have in the hospital wing at Hogwarts. Only the Potter mansion was much more comfortable to do such things in, having soft furnishings and king size beds in the bedrooms. Whilst entertaining Remus, him sat up against the headboard, Peter sat crossed legged at the end of his bed, James sat in an armchair pulled up to the bed, his feet up on the mattress, and Sirius sprawled out on a couch similarly pulled up to Remus' bed on the opposite side to James. They all sat around in that room for a good few hours, helping Remus up and out if he needed to go to the bathroom or something until it finally came to that time when the full moon was suddenly imminent.

At this time they took him downstairs and led him deep into the woods at the edges of the Potter property. Sirius and James cast protective enchantments around a good wide area where they were to keep Remus detained, making sure that he couldn't get out of that perimeter. They were spells that Dumbledore had suggested to them, knowing that they would need them now Remus was out of Hogwarts, and they worked quite well. Their pure purpose was the detainment of animals. Humans could walk in and out of the enchanted space as much as they pleased but animals were trapped. They hadn't had a problem yet and it gave James peace of mind to know that the mansion was not in reach to them during this time. Then they had waited. They all transformed into their animagus states moments before Remus' transformation began. The two transactions were very similar.

Whilst it was easy and pain free to turn into Wormy, Padfoot and Prongs, it wasn't the same for a transformation into Moon. That was hell. It was hell to go through and it was hell to watch. Usually Padfoot couldn't bare the screams that Remus made and he turned into Moony, and as a dog he whimpered at his friend's pain, covering his ears with his paws and laying down, facing away from the transformation. Wormy wasn't much help in this situation either, choosing to take protection next to Padfoot who allowed him to cower beneath his chin, knowing that if he hated it, his less courageous friend would detest it even more so. This left Prongs, the largest and strongest of the animagi friends to watch it, to make sure that it went well and to bare the initial brunt of Moony's rage before recognition set it. He protected the other two until Moony was safe and found who they were, found who he was. Only when this happened did Prongs prod Padfoot with his antlers to notify him and Wormtail that it was over and it was now time to, essentially, play.

After countless hours of the dark, running through the woods, climbing trees and chasing birds, just before the sun came up, the animagi needed to leave the werewolf alone. However, their procedure of getting Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs away from Moony for the last ten minutes of the full moon was not conventional and it was not safe. But it had to be done because the boys needed to regain their strength before returning to get Remus the next day and Moony needed to unwind before turning back into the boy he really was. Then Remus needed a few hours to himself because, more often than not, the transformation back would render him completely useless, unable to move and, sometimes, even unconscious. He had instructed his friends not to return for him for at least three hours whilst he got through the initial detox of the alteration. So, to make this possible, Wormy would go to the far edge of the enchanted space, away from Moony, Padfoot and Prongs, and transform back into Peter. He would then get their wands from where they had hidden them, just inside the enchanted space, and send a signal of sparks to Padfoot and Prongs. They would then, as soon as they could, distract Moony and dart to where Peter was, transform back into themselves, climb onto the brooms Peter had already summoned, and hightail it out of there, safe in the fact that they knew Moony couldn't follow them.

So, after completing this as usual, going through their usual full moon morning routine, each grabbing themselves a snack from the cupboards and saying goodnight/good-morning on the Parisian staircase, they all went back to their own rooms for the brief few hours they had to sleep before having to go fetch Remus. James, as he had been the dawn before, was being extremely quiet, trying his upmost not to make any noise that might wake her. But, just as he had done the previous morning, he had found that it was all in vain. She was again, sat in the chair near the fireplace, three books on the table this time and one, almost finished, in her hand. She looked up when he came in and he sighed when he saw her.

'What are you doing?' he asked her in bewilderment, kicking his shoes off and sitting down on the bed to take of his socks.

'Waiting to make sure you're ok.' Lily said as if it was obvious, an innocent tone in her voice.

James sighed again, too tired to try and hide his words behind any sort of comforting or appreciative tone.

'Lils you're gonna exhaust yourself if you keep doing that.' he said, standing up and taking off his shirt. He continued as he threw it over the end of the bed, 'You can't afford to make yourself tired. You have healer training today. In two hours in fact. Don't wait up for me!'

And then he walked round the bed into the bathroom to wash and do his teeth before coming out, changing into pyjama bottoms and climbing into bed to join Lily. He cuddled up to her, kissing her shoulder, before dropping straight off to sleep. He wasn't woken up until his alarm clock went off at eleven, telling him it was time to go get Remus. By that time, Lily had gone and he hoped that he wouldn't see her awake until after her healer training the next day. But that was not the case.

The following day, after Remus' full moon transformation was over, the last one of the month, the three boys did their usual and went to bed in the early hours of the late morning. Once more, James was carefully quiet, not even letting the lock click as he shut the door to the bedroom behind him, but when he turned around, the same scene as the two previous mornings greeted him. Lily looked up and bit her lip. James sighed and shook his head minimally at her.

He held up his hands in defeat. 'You know what, I'm not even gonna say anything.' he said.

* * *

Remus heard a soft knock on his door in the late afternoon. He frowned. No one in the mansion, not James, Peter and definitely not Sirius, had ever given him the courtesy of knocking before.

'Come in.' he said, a questioning lilt in his voice.

The door carefully opened and Lily peered around it, a kind smile on her face. She walked in fully, carrying a bowl of soup in her hand and a plate of bread on her arm as if she were a waitress, and shut the door quietly behind her.

'Lily.' Remus said in remembrance. 'For a moment I forgot you lived here.'

'That memorable am I?' she teased, walking over to Remus bedside and placing the bread on the end table next to it, grabbing the tray that he kept by his bed for the full moon and setting it over his lap as he sat up. She placed the soup on it and then transferred the bread over, sitting down on the edge of the bed herself after she had done this. 'How are you?' she asked.

'Fine.' Remus said with a shrug. He picked up a piece of bread and tore it, dipping it into the soup. 'Where're the others?'

'Peter's at work.' Lily shrugged, 'James and Sirius went out on detail.' She looked down at her hands.

Remus raised his eyebrows. 'Something wrong?' he asked her before taking a bite of his soup dipped bread.

Lily sighed and looked to the couch that wasn't where it usually was. It was pulled up very close to the bed. 'No.' she said, staring at it wonderingly.

Remus' eyebrows were still raised. He looked at her in derisive question, though she didn't notice. He himself sighed and placed the tray she had given him to the side, sitting up a bit more and leaning forwards. 'What's up?' he asked.

Lily turned back to face him, seeing the curious but kind glaze in his eyes. She thought about it for a couple of seconds. Really she should be broaching all of this with James, not Remus, though it was his condition that it was about. Besides, Remus, whether nicely or not, had always been unfailingly honest with her. It was all down to him that Lily even gave James a chance in the first place. It was thanks to some sort of harsh words from him that she had forced herself to stop seeing what she and Severus had found and looked past it to see the person who James, and all of the marauders, really were. She had thrown aside her judgements, the ones that were influenced by her friendship with Snape and their rivalry with the marauders, and had begun to realise how wrong she was. Remus had been the one to push her to help realise this. So maybe now, he could help.

'Am I not allowed to worry?' she asked finally, her body deflating as she asked the question.

Remus frowned. He looked down but turned back to face her half way through his sentence. 'Well…about what exactly?'

'You lot?' she said, as if the implication was obvious, 'During this time of the month?'

'Ah…' Remus grimaced, nodding his head slowly. He said nothing else.

Lily waited for him to continue. It was a bit of an awkward silence. He was looking down at his hands now, just as she was earlier, wringing them together as if he really didn't want to talk about this. But Lily needed his honesty right now so she prompted him.

'Really?' she said. 'That's all I get? An 'ah'?'

Remus scratched his head. He shrugged slightly. 'I really don't know what to tell you.' he said unhelpfully.

'You came back with a cut shoulder on the first night.' she pointed out, 'You could tell me about that.'

'Nothing to tell.' Remus said, not really wanting to delve into why his shoulder had been ripped, not really wanting her to know his shame, that he couldn't infect anyone else so he took it out on himself. He shook his head of his thoughts and said, 'And Pete came back with broken ribs last night. Shouldn't you be more worried about that?'

Lily paled, her eyes going wide.

Remus closed his eyes, kicking himself mentally. 'You didn't know about that, did you?'

'No I didn't.' Lily said, a hard tone in her voice. 'What the hell? Why did he have broken ribs?'

'I err…kind of stepped on him.' Remus said, speaking quickly, 'But James healed him and he's fine now obviously. I mean, he went to work today. D-do you know what time he'll be back by the way?'

'Don't try to change the subject Remus.' Lily said, 'It doesn't work.' She breathed out and turned her head to him inquisitively. 'James knows how to heal ribs?' she asked in mild surprise.

Remus grimaced. 'He kind of had to learn.' he said, speaking the words with caution, knowing what she could take away from that one simple sentence.

'Great.' Lily muttered, looking put out. She couldn't believe she didn't know that, for one, Peter had been grievously injured. He had looked sprightly enough when she saw him before he went to work so James had obviously healed him well. But that was another thing; how had she not known James could heal ribs? How did she not know he had this skill? Quite simply, he hadn't told her. Even when she was looking up fractures and breaks and how to heal them before Christmas, pouring over the section of ribs, he had said nothing. He had stolen the book from under her nose and had wanted to distract her, telling her mischievously that if she wanted to learn about the human body he could help her out, selflessly of course. She had batted him away laughingly and had continued to read whilst he resorted to reading over her shoulder about the section. He could have told her at that point when she was staring confusedly at the section but he hadn't. He had been far too involved in trying to stop her reading to say anything.

'He's been doing this for years Lily.' Remus said, 'Not once has he not come back.'

She looked at him and saw his slightly sympathetic expression. 'He told you.' she concluded.

Remus nodded his head slowly in confirmation. James had told them. He had told them the day before, the day Lily had gone into healer training, that twice he had found her awake waiting for him. He had asked for advice on how to deal with it and, after Sirius' initial suggestion of drugging her in the evening to put her to sleep was thrown out, Remus and Peter had just suggested that he leave it. He couldn't make her stop waiting for him if that's what she was going to do. They knew it would annoy James, that it would make him think that she didn't trust him to take care of himself on these excursions, but they had also said that maybe it wasn't about her trust in him. Maybe it was about her. When he said he didn't understand why though, they had no suggestions. So perhaps this was prime time for Remus to actually find out. For James.

'Why did you wait up?' Remus asked her.

'To make sure he came back safe.' Lily replied simply.

'Did you not trust him to?' he said.

Lily frowned at the absurdity of that suggestion. Not trust James? That wasn't an option for her. She trusted James with her life. In literal terms she would let him push her off of a cliff for she knew that he would have a way to save her at the bottom. And knowing him, it would be nothing more or less than himself, standing there, ready to catch her. 'Of course I did.' she said.

'Then why wait up?' Remus queried.

'Because I was worried.' Lily said, 'Because I love him and I don't see anything wrong with making sure he's fine. I'm _allowed_ to worry.'

'You can worry all you want.' Remus said, 'But you staying up to check that he's back…to him, makes it seem like you don't trust him. And James values trust above everything else.'

Lily rolled her eyes. 'I know that.'

'Then show him you do.' Remus stated, 'Leaved him to it.'

He and Lily shared a look of understanding. Lily knew that she wouldn't be waiting up for James anymore. She would force herself to go to bed on the nights of the full moon and allow James to sneak in in the early hours of the day to prove to him that she trusted him one hundred percent. It wouldn't be easy, trying to get to sleep when she knew he was out there in a situation which could only be described as dangerous. But she would do it. She had one request though, one she made because she knew it was the only way she would find out.

'Ok. Do me a favour though?' she asked Remus, waiting for him to nod before continuing on. 'Tell me what happens. When you're out there.'

Remus paused for a second, knowing that James did not want her knowing certain things as it was incredibly foolish and dangerous, things like their method of getting out of the protected area in the morning. But this was Lily asking and, for some reason, Remus had always found himself to be brutally honest with her. He knew had been the one to call her out on her preconceptions of them all at the beginning of sixth year, to get her to give them a chance. Some might say his frankness with her had paved the way for her relationship with James. He didn't want that straightforwardness in their friendship to go so he agreed, despite knowing that James probably would not like it. 'Ok.' he said, receiving a thankful nod from Lily in return.

With the discussion over, he picked up the tray with the now cool soup and bread on it and placed it back on his lap. It had lain there all but forgotten whilst they were talking but now they had worn out that topic, he remembered it. He moved the conversation on. 'So what happened at the Order meeting then?' he asked.

Lily let out a small smile. 'Alice and Frank joined.' she said happily, 'And we're all allowed to take assignments on our own now.'

'Really?' Remus said with surprise.

'Yep.' Lily said. 'You and James have one day after tomorrow watching Dianna Marsket.'

Remus nodded his head.

Lily continued. 'And Sirius and Peter have one at the same time watching Ian Jacobs.'

Remus blinked at her and let go of a breath. 'That's not gonna end well.' he said.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	28. Chapter 27

**Hey guys!**

**So here's your peace offering for me forgetting to update. I hope you like it.**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Seven**

Peter and Sirius sat on a road side, on a dry patch of frosted pavement, opposite Ian Jacobs' house. They were on protection detail but so far, it had been incredibly boring. No one had attacked which was, in actuality, a good thing, and Ian Jacobs had done nothing but spend the day in his house with his family. It was to be expected really. He was a fifty-four year old man and partially retired, only working a few days during the week. He was always at home at the weekend. However that fact also meant that those who took the weekend shifts had the very difficult job of staying alert and not being bored to death whilst they were on duty. It hadn't been a problem for anyone so far though because everyone in the Order got on well and spoke to each other like old friends. So when he had been assigned this duty, Sirius hadn't thought much about it, believing it would be rather enjoyable. He had actually been looking forwards to a good old conversation with a few of the other members. But what he had forgotten was that Dumbledore had now released him, and his friends, from being accompanied by others on mission, instead giving them free reign to go out on assignments on their own. That meant that, instead of their being four of them, instead of joking with Marlene or being teased by her, instead of stealing Dorcas' sweets with Sturgis, hanging with Benjy or laughing with Gideon and Fabian, he was stuck with Peter, alone. And that was a situation he had never particularly liked. Today was no different.

They had been sat there for a good two hours, from the early eight o'clock switch over with Marlene and Benjy, (who he had begged to stay, grabbing Marlene's hand and kneeling down, pleading for them to not go to which she responded too by pushing him over, too tired to deal with him), to the now ten o'clock lull in the day. They had already exhausted what little they always talked about, finishing the next full moon, their old pranks and Sirius' many conquests when it came to girls in only an hour. For the next hour they had nothing else to say to each other. It wasn't unusual. They hadn't always been the best conversationalists when slung together, Peter being socially awkward anyway and only able to hold a decent discussion when there was more than one person talking to him, and Sirius dominating any sort of subject with talk of himself and joking insults of Peter. But before, when they'd been in similar situations at Hogwarts, there had always been something to distract them from the silence, whether that be food or the prospect that either James or Remus would appear at any moment and provide them with something to do. It wasn't like that this time. Now they had nothing. Nothing but four more hours of each other's company.

'Man I wish Prongs was here.' Sirius said, laying his head back. He was sat against a small brick wall watching the house opposite, (the one where Ian Jacobs resided with his family). His feet were set a little ways apart, his legs bent and his wrists resting on his knees. He had his wand in his right hand, holding it limply as he didn't expect to be using it. He sighed. 'Least he'd be fun.' he muttered, shooting Peter a bit of a look. But it was all in jest. At least for Sirius.

Peter bit in his lip and looked down to the pavement, flicking the loose stones that lay there. Sirius had been saying the same thing for the past half an hour; how he wished James was here, how he wished that James was on assignment with him instead of Peter, how he wished that Peter had brought him food as James would have done. He was getting a bit sick of it but it was the only conversation they were going to have. 'Sorry.' he muttered.

'Can't help it.' Sirius muttered, rolling his eyes and giving a laugh, 'Not your fault you're dull.'

Peter let out a slow, low sigh, a frustrated noise in the back of his throat.

'Jeez Pete relax.' Sirius said, 'Anyone would think you're bored or something. Oh. No. Wait. That's me.'

'Then do something.' Peter suggested.

'I'm doing it.' Sirius smirked, 'Annoying you is about as much entertainment as I get when we're together.'

'You're not exactly winning any awards for being good company either Padfoot-'

'Ooh, is Wormy finding his back bone?' Sirius jibed with a laugh at his friend's clear irritation.

Peter retreated back into himself. You could see it happen in his mind through his physicality. He was sat cross legged, leaning on the same wall Sirius was, though a few feet away. When he had been trying to stand up to Sirius, (metaphorically), he had straightened his back and had turned his head to look at him, his small round face reddening at the fact he was doing it, a mix of nervous excitement and terrible fear that he would be kicked down by Sirius' words. The later, of course, ended up happening and he turned his head away, slouching against the wall and looking back to the ground with his small watery blue eyes. He flicked another stone.

'Come on Pete!' Sirius groaned, 'That was meant to me a compliment! Learn to recognise them.'

Peter said nothing in return and the silence between them came back.

They watched Ian Jacobs through the window that was still decorated with tinsel from the recent holiday. He had a little girl in his arms, his granddaughter. She couldn't have been more than six years old with glossy chestnut hair and big brown eyes. She was beaming in her granddaddy's arms, laughing as he danced about with her until the woman who they could only assume was Jacobs' daughter took her off him, also laughing. The pair began to have a conversation, the little girl playing with her mum's hair. It was almost a picture perfect family; each generation there. It was something Peter looked upon with envy but said nothing about. He believed that, as it was him, if he expressed wanting a family Sirius would only initiate a string of insults, jokes and jeers, brushing the conversation away. He didn't want that. However, he knew that if it was James who said something like that, that he would one day like to be in a situation like that, to be married and have children and grandchildren, to have that picture perfect family, Sirius would still make the light hearted jokes but also take the conversation completely seriously. It was always one rule for James, and even Remus, and a completely different one for Peter. It had always been that way.

The silence got to Peter and he too found himself wishing that either James or Remus were there. If they were, they would make a good effort to coax Peter out of his shell, to get him talking about something or else just talk at him about something they knew he could put the odd word of agreement into. With Sirius it was different. He didn't know why but they just clashed. They always had at Hogwarts. But they were out of Hogwarts now. Peter didn't want to be like this. He didn't want to resent Sirius.

'What do you think Prongs and Moony are doing?' he asked, trying to broach some semblance of conversation with Sirius.

Sirius looked at his watch and scoffed. 'Well it's ten past ten.' he said, 'So they'll be on their way to the hotel. Then they'll get two unfortunate sods fired, and then spend around three hours listening to two middle-aged twats shagging.'

Peter flinched slightly, very unintentionally, at Sirius' words. He didn't know why he did but Sirius had a theory. One he wasn't afraid to voice and tease him about.

'Merlin Wormy I only said shagging.' Sirius laughed, 'Lighten up. You have _got_ to get over your fear of sex. Oh. Wait.' he turned his head and smirked mockingly, 'You probably don't.'

'I'm not afraid of sex.' Peter muttered, flicking yet more stones around the pavement. He glanced up sparingly at the Jacobs house. Nothing had changed though he wished it would.

Sirius barked a laugh and shook his head. 'You know, I don't understand why we've kept you around so long sometimes Wormy. You're nothing like the rest of us.'

Peter curled his hand into a fist and dug his nails into the palm of his hand.

'I mean, in looks alone you're only about a two, if that, and I'm obviously an eleven.' Sirius went on offhandedly, bragging about himself as he twirled his wand between his fingers oh so delicately.

Peter's breathing started to become a bit heavier.

'You're nowhere near as funny as me. Or Prongs. And sarcasm be_longs_ to Moony. And whenever we pulled pranks you were just a test subject-'

Peters face was turning pinker, the pupils of his little blue eyes dilating.

'-but Moony said that was mean. And Prongs insisted that you were good for something. What it is I don't know.' Sirius shrugged, 'All I ever saw you do is follow him round-'

'Like you don't!' Peter suddenly spat, turning to Sirius with a slightly wavering glare. He had had enough of this. 'At least I didn't pretend that's not what I was doing. You follow Prongs around too! You're nothing more than his lap dog.'

Sirius blinked at him. He had no idea how to reply to that. Peter had only once or twice in the past stood up to him and that was when James or Remus was there and had usually already called Sirius out on the way he was treating their smallest friend. He had never taken him on one to one. And that was because Sirius had genuinely thought he had never needed too. Because he thought he knew that any taunts or jibes he slung his way were all just jokes. He was joking. He was never serious when he had teased him. He may bug the hell out of him sometimes and he may just wish that he wasn't such a wet wipe but he was still his friend. To realise that maybe Peter didn't see things that way was a bit shocking to him. He turned his head.

'On the move.' he said suddenly to Peter.

'What?' Peter said, breathing heavily after just speaking his mind to Sirius for probably the first time without assistance. If this was a way to change the subject to just disregard what Peter had said then it was lousy.

'On the move.' Sirius said through slightly gritted teeth, getting up and pulling Peter to standing too.

Ian Jacobs had come out of his house in a loose fitting white t-shirt and deep blue track-suit bottoms. He was going for a run despite it being the middle of January and there being a cold nip in the air. He fiddled with a small device for about thirty seconds before clipping it to his jogging bottoms and leisurely setting of in a trot. Hiding behind a couple of cars, Sirius and Peter watched him go. They left it a good minute, until the man reached about half way down the suburb road, to set off behind him. He couldn't know he was being followed; Dumbledore was very strict on that.

When they set off, Sirius pulled Peter by his arm, just below the shoulder, to get him jogging in place next to him. Peter wasn't the fittest of them, being quite small and actually quite dumpy, so running for him, any type of running, got him out of breath quickly. Soon he was wheezing. Sirius was fine though. They turned a corner.

'You know I'm only joking right?' Sirius said, sparing Peter a glance as he kept a watchful eye on Ian Jacobs who, despite his age, was apparently quite athletic. He was pulling ahead of them.

Peter glowered at Sirius, an expression that was not becoming or even at home on his face.

'Lighten up, Pete. I don't mean it.' Sirius went on, trying to show Peter that that was genuinely how he thought their friendship worked. Granted it wasn't a great way for a friendship to work, one person bagging on the other all the time and the other person just taking it, but that didn't mean Sirius saw him as someone who _wasn't _his friend. He still held him in the same regard as he did James, Remus and Lily. He would still die for him.

'Then…' Peter puffed, finding it hard to breath, glancing at Jacobs who was getting further and further away, 'W-why…do it?'

Sirius shrugged as they jogged. 'You've never complained about the way I treat you before.'

'I…didn't.' Peter stopped and put his hands to his knees bending over. He glanced up. He could still make out Jacobs in the distance. Sirius was just a little further forward than him, still jogging, not noticing Peter had stopped. He passed a little alleyway and suddenly, they weren't only three people on the suburb strip anymore.

'SIRIUS LOOK OUT!' Peter shouted, raising his voice to far past his normal volume to warn his friend that, flying out of the alleyway now on a Comet 260 was a cloaked death eater. Peter took out his wand and quickly threw a body bind curse at him, the death eater falling to the floor with a thud. Sirius turned around.

He looked up to Peter, wide eyed and both of them, instantly on each other's wave length, shared a short look before both darting forwards again, running like the wind trying to get to Ian Jacobs before anyone else could.

Four more death eaters appeared, all on brooms, taking the advantage. Sirius and Peter ran as fast as they could, dodging spells that were being thrown at them from every which way and direction. They defended themselves as the sprinted down the street, Ian Jacobs still in sight a short distance ahead of them. They deflected all manner of curses and spells, Sirius managing to throw out a stunning spell of his own at one of the death eaters flying behind them. His limp body toppled off of the broom and was dragged painfully along the icy gravel for a couple of seconds before detaching completely and rolling out into the middle of the road. The other death eaters however were unphased by the downing of yet another colleague and continued to bombard Peter and Sirius with all they had, chasing them down as they tried to outrun their flight.

They were nearing their goal: Ian Jacobs, the man that still seemed completely oblivious that there was a heated battle going on behind him. He was less than twenty yards away from them now, completely in reach. They were capable of grabbing him and apparating out of there. That was all they needed to do now; grab him and go. But before they got there, the death eater that Peter had previously put the full body bind on, apparated in front of Jacobs. His sudden appearance and the loud crack that accompanied it caused the old man to stumble backwards slightly in shock. Sirius and Peter were only able to see a wicked grin and a twirl of robes before both the death eater and their charge were gone. But the battle wasn't over. The remaining death eaters flew forwards and stopped directly in front of them, hovering on their brooms in a slightly squashed triangle.

Sirius and Peter skidded to a halt, wands at the ready. But before either side could fire a single spell at each other to commence a duel, Peter swished his wand in a big motion and pointed to the floor beneath the death eaters brooms.

'_Expluso_!' he yelled.

It provoked and explosion instantaneously. The grey slabs of stone cracked and jutted upwards, bits of debris scattering everywhere and dust rising up from the demolition site. The strength of it sent the death eaters skywards and knocked both Sirius and Peter back by the sheer force of the explosion. They landed on the floor, on their backs, both in agony. Peter looked to have broken his wrist and Sirius to have dislocated his shoulder. But they didn't let that bother them too much at the minute. They sat up and stared at the damage done to the calm neighbourhood, both breathing deeply. They turned their heads to look at each other. The tables had turned. Sirius was in a slight state of shock and mild fright, (though he would never admit it) and Peter was the one who looked like he meant business.

'We need to tell Dumbledore.' he said.

* * *

Members of the Order buzzed. They weren't all there yet, the urgent message only being sent out a couple of minutes ago, but most had arrived within seconds of receiving Dumbledore's memo. They were all gathering at Moody's house. So far, Dorcas Meadowes had arrived with Arabella Figg in tow. Gideon and Fabian had arrived next and Marlene and Benjy had come in only moments afterwards. Aberforth Dumbledore had arrive early on with Professor Dumbledore, as had Elphias Doge, and Moody had dragged Mundungus out from wherever he had been hiding. They were now waiting on Alice Prewett, Frank Longbottom, Lily Evans and Sturgis Podmore to make an appearance. The other Order members would not be in attendance. James Potter and Remus Lupin would not be there, (for they were still on detail protecting Dianna Marsket), and McGonagall and Hagrid had been left at Hogwarts to take care of the school which had now been back in session for a couple of weeks or more. Of course, as they had been the ones to let Ian Jacobs go, Sirius and Peter were already there. And they were getting a rollicking from Moody. Well, Sirius was.

'You should have been paying more attention boy!' Alastor Moody growled at him. He was staring him down as Sirius sat depressively on the couch in Moody's living room. 'Constant vigilance!' he somewhat yelled. He had said nothing to Peter who was sat next to Sirius. He seemed to be putting all the blame on him and it was probably because he had a bit of a grudge against him. He did draw on his table after all.

'They came out of nowhere.' Peter said, saying what Sirius wouldn't.

'You should have been watching _every_where!' Moody said, sparing Peter a look but still glowering at Sirius, looming over him as if he was nothing more than a little mouse. That was usually Peter's position.

'Alastor there is no use dwelling on it now.' Dumbledore said softly, holding up a halting hand to Moody. 'We have to deal with the consequences.' He motioned for Moody to walk away which, after another sharp look at Sirius, he did. Dumbledore nodded his head at both boys looking as if he was about to speak, but followed Moody instead, saying nothing to them.

Sirius felt awful. He knew, deep down, that it was not all his fault. It was just a consequence of circumstance and it was something he couldn't help. But he still felt horrible about it. If he hadn't have been teasing Peter; if he hadn't have just had the shock realisation that, although he thought his jokes were all in good fun, Peter didn't see it that way; and if he hadn't been trying to dodge his conscience by trying to prove to Peter that he didn't mean anything he said to him, then maybe he would have been more alert to the fact that there were death eaters just waiting to attack. He should have been watching more carefully and he shouldn't have let Ian Jacobs get that far away from them on his jog. He should have been able to take down more than one death eater. He shouldn't have had to rely on Peter to warn him in the first place and he shouldn't have had to rely on him to get them out of there at the end. He should have done _something._

He glanced to Peter. 'That was…' he swallowed, 'That was a good spell out there Pete. And thanks. For warning me.'

Peter said nothing in return but instead looked a bit disbelievingly at his fingernails.

'And you know I'm only joking right?' Sirius said, 'When I bag on you…I don't really mean it.'

Peter just nodded his head solemnly and stood up. He walked away to go talk to Dumbledore and Moody, to be the one to inform them of exactly what had happened in the knowledge that, without Sirius there, Moody would be more open to listening to their side of the story. Sirius stayed sat where he was but he wasn't alone for long.

Someone sat on the couch next to him. He was looking down at the floor but, by the boots she was wearing, he knew it was Marlene. His relationship with her, with anyone in the Order who he wasn't living with, was strictly banter filled. He didn't want to talk to any of them when he was in such a glum mood. Least of all her. She'd probably think him stupid.

'Don't worry 'bout Moody okay?' she said, looking sideways at him.

Sirius didn't look up. He didn't say anything either.

'He doesn't blame you.' she went on.

Sirius scoffed. 'Sounded that way.' he said with a slightly tense jaw. He could feel the tension throughout his body.

'Nah that's just Moody.' Marlene said, waving Sirius' words away, 'He thinks it's his job to install complete and total awareness into us all. Constant vigilance. And he thinks he's failed when it comes to you new lot.' Marlene shrugged. 'He blames himself not you.'

Sirius was silent. He stayed looking at the floor, leaning on his knees with his elbows, just wishing that James wasn't on assignment right now. He was the one he usually unloaded all of this kind of stuff on. It probably wasn't fair for Sirius to always do that, to only share his problems with James and expect him to find a solution for him, but that was the way it had always been. James was always far stronger than Sirius was. He was the strongest out of them all. But, for Sirius, he did have a close second.

'Sirius!' Lily said, practically flying to his side and crouching down next to him, worry on her face. She got Sirius to look at her just by being there. 'What happened? Are you okay?'

Sirius nodded. 'I let them get Ian Jacobs.' he muttered to her, glancing her in the eye with a glum expression.

'What?' Lily asked, she stood up.

Marlene stood up at the same time, giving Lily a small smile which she returned as she took the seat she had vacated. Sirius looked up as Marlene walked away, watching her go until she was out of earshot to turn to Lily. He spoke in a quiet voice.

'It's all my fault.' he said, 'I was joking with Pete but apparently he doesn't see it as joking so I was trying to tell him that's all it is and to lighten up but then Jacobs went running. For an old dude he's fast. We were following him but…I dunno they came out of nowhere. We tried to catch up to him but there were four of them and two of us and one apparated in front of him and just…grabbed him.'

'That's not your fault Sirius.' Lily said comfortingly, placing a small hand on his shoulder. He flinched. 'What's wrong?' Lily asked concernedly.

'I think it's dislocated.' Sirius said through the pain. Neither he nor Peter had gotten themselves seen too about their injuries that were caused by Peters spell. They had instead gone straight to Dumbledore and then straight to Moody's. That was all that had happened since death eaters had captured Ian Jacobs.

'What?' Lily said with a bit of a sighing gasp. She shook her head and took out her wand. With a quick flick and a resting tap on Sirius' shoulder, she healed the dislocation with just a few muttered words. She put her wand to the side of her on the couch and took Sirius' arm in her hands, moving it around and carefully studying his face to see if he was still in any pain. She spoke as she did. 'You couldn't have done anything about it Sirius.' she said softly.

'Couldn't I?' Sirius asked sarcastically.

'Does it hurt anymore?' she queried.

'No.' Sirius replied.

Lily let go of his arm and continued. 'Someone apparated right in front of him.' Lily said, 'There's no way you could have seen that coming. You couldn't have stopped it. Just be happy you got out of there.'

Sirius hummed in sullen agreement.

'How did you dislocate your shoulder?' she asked, tucking her wand back into the inside of her jacket pocket.

Sirius sighed. 'Jacobs had just been taken and…we were faced with three death eaters.'

'One of them did it?' Lily wondered anxiously, her eyes wide. If a death eater had been the cause of an injury, her primary healing spells that she had learnt in healer training wouldn't be enough to heal him fully. It could be cursed or infected or have hidden long term effects she knew nothing about. She bit her lip and glanced quickly at Sirius' shoulder with a nervous look. She hoped it was ok.

'No.' Sirius stated, relieving Lily's worries though he did not know it. He carried on. 'They were on brooms and they flew in front of us and, I thought we were gonna duel or something. Die trying.'

Lily shot him a warning look, hating when any of the boys spoke like that, as if their life was meant to be given in this war and not saved. It ate at her. The same way it ate at her when Dumbledore referred to the Order members as 'assets'. Didn't anyone understand that their life was precious? It shouldn't be spoken about in such a blasé fashion. It needed to be protected.

Sirius brushed it off, paying no more than a couple seconds attention to Lily's look. He didn't ever let himself be caught out by those looks and just ignored them. The only person who those looks had an effect on was James. Sirius had no idea why but if Lily ever gave James that look, to reprimand him silently for talking about throwing his life away so carelessly, he would bend over backwards to make it up to her. He would retreat in his step and take back what he had said, proclaiming insistently that he would never leave her. That was love, Sirius supposed. But he didn't know. He had never been in love.

Sirius carried on. 'So yeah, we were gonna duel or die in battle,' he said, specifically using words and phrasing that he knew would annoy Lily. (He may be feeling sour but he still liked to annoy his friends). 'But before anything happened, Pete threw this weird arse spell on the ground and it blew them of their brooms and sent us backwards. We landed on the floor. I dislocated by shoulder and Pete,' (he motioned carelessly at where Peter stood) 'he hurt it wrist. Broke it or fractured it or something.'

Lily's lips disappeared and she turned her head to look at Peter momentarily. He didn't look to be in any immediate pain so there was no way his wrist was broken. It could possibly be a minor fracture but she thought that it was much more likely to just be a sprain. She resolved to look at it afterwards, after she had finished speaking to Sirius. She turned back to him. 'That must have been a powerful spell.' she said.

Sirius nodded. 'Who knew right?' he said with a scoffing laugh. He should have been proud of his friend for that spell. He had told him that it was good and impressive but still, he was secretly seething that Peter had been the one to cast it. One; it had hurt him. Two; never in a million years would he think he was capable of magic like that. And now, whilst Sirius sat clouded in guilt and blame, Peter was explaining the situation to Dumbledore and Moody like a calm politician. He had taken the spotlight for his fifteen minutes.

Sirius pouted moodily and looked over to Peter, Dumbledore and Moody. 'Moody blames me.' he grumbled, 'All cause I drew on his table.'

Lily gave a small breathless laugh. 'Well next time bring some parchment with you.' she said.

'Wasn't me.' Sirius defended, now moving his glare over to Marlene. 'It's her fault. She made me do it.'

Lily smiled and rolled her eyes at Sirius, shaking her head at him.

'What?' he asked.

'Nothing.' Lily replied, shaking her head again. 'So what went on with you and Peter?' she asked.

'Really?' Sirius questioned with raised eyebrows, 'Ian Jacobs is captured by death eaters. Someone here is gonna have a death mission trying to get him back and you're asking me about Pete?'

Lily thought for a second. 'Yes.' she said eventually with a small smile, 'I'm curious.'

'That's a problem with you, you know that?' Sirius said unintentionally harshly. He rolled his eyes and turning away from Lily, scanning the room. Sturgis Podmore had arrived now and was now vying for some sweets from Dorcas Meadowes who was shaking her head fondly at him. They were still waiting for Alice and Frank. But they had never been to Moody's house before so perhaps their lateness was due to not knowing the location they were supposed to get to.

'I've been told.' Lily shrugged nonchalantly as though it wasn't a problem. She'd always had a curious nature. It fed her love for learning. 'So what happened?' she asked again.

Sirius sighed and leant back on the couch. He didn't know what to say. His mouth opened but no words came out. He closed his mouth and looked to Lily, grimacing slightly and giving her an 'I don't know' look.

'You said you were joking with him but he doesn't see it as joking?' Lily prompted, her head tilted to the side inquisitively.

'Yeah.' Sirius said, nodding his head slowly, 'Dunno why he's only just saying this now though. We've been friends for years. I've never treated him any differently than I have Prongs or Moony.'

'Well…' Lily said, biting her lip.

'What?' Sirius asked, 'Have I?'

'Well yeah.' Lily stated, nodding her head at the proclamation, 'You're always putting him down. And he's not the most confident of you all anyway.'

'But it's not like I don't put Remus or James down at all.' Sirius said, his jaw tight again. He didn't like this conversation. It was just a joke. He just _joked_ with Peter. Why couldn't people see that? _Why_ was this suddenly an issue? He didn't get it.

'Yeah but, not to be mean about Peter but, they can handle it.' Lily said, 'Nothing seems to touch Remus. And James. He gives as good as he gets. Peter doesn't answer back. He just sits there and takes it and, at some point, it's obviously crossed a line for him. And I think James and Remus must have realised that but…I don't think you have.'

Sirius swallowed hard.

'I'm not saying you don't see him as a friend or that you're intentionally bullying him or something but…' Lily tried to find the right words. 'He's not as…strong, as you lot are. I think he just needs to feel included at some point. To feel like he's not just someone who you've all taken pity on and let hang around with you for the past seven years.' she paused to see if there was any recognition in Sirius' face. 'I think you just need to cut him some slack.'

Sirius' face was hard as stone but he could see her point. Peter definitely wasn't the strongest. He was nothing like James or Remus when it came to giving each other a hard time. Those two would give Sirius a hard time right on back, insulting him and jeering him like the best of them. But it was always kept it light and it was known that it was just a joke. Perhaps Peter didn't see it like that. He had never fought back. He had taken it all lying down. And Sirius had never thought about it like that before. He nodded at Lily to show that he understood what she was saying. He should probably be a bit nicer to Peter from now on. Besides, he wasn't completely useless. He had proved that today. The spell he had cast that blew up the pavement was strong and forceful. It was actually surprising. Maybe Sirius needed to stop underestimating the boy and his abilities.

Alice and Frank arrived imminently, apologising profusely about being late. Dumbledore waved away their apology and called the meeting to Order. There was a murmuring and a bit of a kafuffle as members made their way into Moody's dining room. On the way there, Lily stopped Peter and asked him if he was okay, checking on his wrist which was indeed, just sprained. She couldn't do anything about that so let him go sit down next to Elphias Doge who had already sat down at the circle table that Moody had. Everyone else gathered around it, some standing up, some sitting down. Moody and Dumbledore stood at one rounded edge of it, the topic of the meeting too pressing for them to take seats. But others still did just that. Dorcas and Mrs. Figg sat in their usual seats, as did Gideon and Fabian Prewett who sat next to them. Mundungus was forced into a seat in front of Moody and Sturgis then took the seat next to him. Marlene occupied the seat after that. Everyone else stood up. Sirius, Peter, Alice, Frank and Benjy were all gathered loosely at the back of the room. They were stood a small distance away from Aberforth Dumbledore who stood quietly in the corner, watching the proceedings as if he was the ghost of Christmas past.

'Ian Jacobs has been captured.' Dumbledore stated, beginning the meeting with the fact of why they had all had to gather there so urgently. Some of the members, the ones who hadn't gotten there early or spent time talking to those who had, didn't know this and expressed their shock.

'How'd that happen?' Sturgis asked, gone out.

'It does not matter.' Dumbledore said before Moody could say anything.

Sirius looked down uncomfortably where he stood. Lily touched his arm in comfort, a way of telling him not to worry. He very clearly blamed himself. But Peter didn't seem to have that affliction. He stared straight ahead from where he was sitting. He looked as though he had done nothing wrong.

'What we must focus on now is how to get him back.' Dumbledore said.

'And how do you suggest we do that Albus?' Aberforth Dumbledore said with a hard tone.

Lily, Sirius, Peter, Alice and Frank, all who had never actually heard Dumbledore's brother speak before, turned to the man in surprise. Whilst Dumbledore's voice was calm and reasoning, Aberforth's voice was unforgiving and unmistakably empty. They seemed as though they were on opposite ends of the spectrum.

'We know where he'll be but how do you suggest any of us get over that border?' he asked, 'The last time that was tried, the Dearborn's paid the price for your foolishness.'

'Aberforth.' Dumbledore said calmly, looking to his brother to silence him.

'Perhaps you should think of a way to get over that obstacle before sending two more of your 'assets' to their deaths.' Aberforth said bluntly.

Lily's mouth dropped open a little bit as she looked at Aberforth. She had heard it; the distaste and disgust at the word 'asset'. She was glad to know it wasn't just her. But there was something else in Aberforth's tone of voice. There seemed to be an underlying issue that she just couldn't put her finger on. From that, she knew that, although they both obviously didn't like the word, there was a difference between them. She knew Dumbledore did, ultimately, have the best interests at heart for each Order member. Aberforth clearly did not share this view.

'Shut your mouth Aberforth.' Moody snapped, banging the end of his cane of the floor, 'We haven't even gotten past the basic facts yet.'

Aberforth raised his head and looked down on Moody who did not stir. He just stared at him.

'What's your plan Albus?' Elphias asked, the never failing sidekick.

Dumbledore took a breath and nodded serenely at Elphias, thanking him in not so many words for bringing the meeting back around. It was just enough to break the tension in the air.

'I have devised a spell which I believe will be able to lower the protection Voldemort has placed around his hide out for a minimum of two minutes.' Dumbledore said, 'I have been working tirelessly on it since the unfortunate deaths of our colleagues and friends Dadalus and Caradoc Dearborn.'

He glanced a little testily at him brother whose expression did not change. He was definitely not impressed at his brother's dedication to try and ensure that the Dearborn's fate did not await anybody else. It was almost as if he didn't believe that that was the reason or intention behind Dumbledore's spell.

Dumbledore looked back to the table and carried on with the meeting. 'However, two minutes is all I can guarantee those who take on this mission.' Dumbledore said, his voice laden with warning, 'If it fails to work, if two minutes runs out, I beg you to get yourselves to safety.'

'What about Jacobs?' Gideon voiced.

Dumbledore looked down and paused for a second. 'I do not doubt that he will be in danger and that is unfortunate.'

Sirius fidgeted uncomfortably again.

'However, I also believe that it is not Voldemort's intention to kill him.' Dumbledore continued. 'If this attempt to rescue him is unsuccessful, we shall continue to try until we have also brought him home. However, if this first attempt does fail, then I must reiterate that you must get yourselves to safety. We cannot progress without the minutes of your mission.'

He was speaking to the group as a whole. He had yet to assign this mission yet, or at least, he had yet to assign it out loud. He knew who he wanted to go; who he felt had to go. This was a mission which had an inevitable outcome; it demanded that the pair who undertook it to face Voldemort. So it only seemed fitting that the people who accepted this mission carried with them the one thing that Dumbledore knew Voldemort could not and would not, _ever,_ understand.

'I'll go.' Moody said gruffly, stepping forwards. Mundungus' face turned white, knowing that, as Moody was his usual partner, that his life had just been volunteered as well.

'No way.' he said, shaking his head and craning his neck to look round to Moody.

'Don't be such a coward Mundungus.' Moody growled.

But Mundungus' plea of not wanting to go had opened the floor to everyone. Dorcas Meadowes and Sturgis volunteered, as did Gideon and Fabian and Marlene and Benjy. Practically everyone, bar Mundungus and Arabella Figg, let it be known that they were available to go. But Dumbledore calmly held up his hand to stop the offers and turned his head to one specific person.

'Miss Evans.' he said softly.

Everyone looked to Lily and she stood up straighter, no longer resting in her hip as she had been. She had one arm folded across her stomach, gripping the elbow in the other arm. She gripped it slightly tighter, glancing quickly at the people staring at her, something she had never altogether been comfortable with. But now it wasn't that big an issue. Her eyes landed back on Dumbledore.

'Yes, Sir.' she said strongly.

'Are you and Mr Potter willing to undertake this assignment?' he asked calmly.

Lily nodded her head, agreeing for both herself and James.

'They're just children!' Moody said in slight outrage, 'Surely this calls for an experienced hand Albus? It's ridiculous to have-'

'I believe that Miss Evans and Mr Potter are the right choice for this particular task and all it entails, Alastor.' Dumbledore said quietly, though everybody heard him. He stopped all objections in their tracks, not revealing why he had chosen them but not concealing that he did, in fact, have one. He looked to Lily again. 'You are to leave at first light.' he said.

* * *

**And sorry about the cliff hanger but I'm a mean person**

**The next update, (and I will update!), will be on the 24th of September so that it gives me a bit of time to move back to uni!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	29. Chapter 28

**Hey guys!**

**So this is quite a graphic chapter and some of the ones that follow are similar as well so I'm going to change the rating. Some of the things I plan on writing I'm a bit worried about too because I just have this feeling that people won't like the direction I'm going to go in.**

**So here's Chapter Twenty-Eight. Let me know what you think!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Eight**

Just before the first sign of light, James and Lily left the Potter mansion. They were seen off by Remus, Sirius, Peter and Dumbledore, who had come over to give them the spell he had worked out, the one he hoped would temporarily lower the force field around Voldemort's hideout. When he got there, he made sure they had everything with them, going over a list with them as if they were nothing more than children who he was sending to school for the first time. But that was of course, not what he was doing. Quite the opposite. He was sending two somewhat inexperienced soldiers out to face their almost certain death and they knew it. You could see it in their faces and you could see it on the faces of their friends. And whilst Lily and James had undertaken this mission willingly, Lily at the Order meeting and James later on when she told him after he had returned from his protection duty, their friends were less accepting of it.

When they had first gotten home after the Order meeting, Sirius had flat out refused to let them both go, even though he knew that in reality he had no real say over it. But he still expressed his concerns. He had told Lily about them first as she was there, telling her that she shouldn't have said yes to such a dangerous mission when James wasn't there to give his opinion. And even after hearing her voice the god's honest truth that James would have done the exact same thing and have no qualms about it, he still said she shouldn't have said yes. He then became more agitated with the whole situation when James returned, for when he was informed by Sirius of the precarious situation his girlfriend had placed him in, he had simply shrugged it off and said she was right. He did not flinch or turn pale, nothing. There was not an ounce of dread that Sirius could see in the boy's body and it killed him inside because he felt as if he was the only one who actually saw this assignment for what it actually was; a suicide mission. He didn't understand why James and Lily couldn't see this. All he knew was that he would never forgive himself if anything happened to them. After all, if he had not let Ian Jacobs get captured then they would not have to walk into deaths arms, into Voldemort's grasp.

Peter, who also was starting to feel the guilt over the situation now that his fifteen minutes were up and the consequences were at hand, also wanted to plead with the pair not to go. But he, unlike Sirius, could not find the words to tell them this. He watched as Sirius battled with the couple, begging them to say no now and let Moody take the assignment but said nothing to help his case. He just sat meekly in the armchair, any sort of courage he had found whilst on his watch with Sirius now gone. He picked nervously at his nails and stole terrified glances at the pair. And whilst he was feeling like hell inside, a knot in his stomach the size of his head, wanting to throw up at the idea that he had put his friends in this sort of danger, he could not express it. And that was probably due to the fact that even though he had the same reservations as Sirius did about letting them go, he also had a flame of relief in his heart; relief it wasn't him. He tried to reason with himself that this was not the case and that his relief came from looking at the calm faces of James and Lily who seemed unphased by their suicide mission, but he knew he was kidding himself. He was glad he wasn't the one who was going to die.

Remus had heard about this mission at the same time that James had found out about his fate. Their reactions were quite different. As James nodded his head coolly and calmly stated that they would need to get a few things gathered together in preparation for this assignment, Remus had turned pale. His expression was probably the one Sirius wanted to see on James' face; complete aghast in horror at the prospect of it. He listened to Sirius almost yell at James for being so blasé about it all, listened to him yell at the couple for not having a higher regard and value for their own lives and it was painful to hear. It was hard to listen to, this topic coming from Sirius' mouth, for it was something Remus knew he usually rolled his eyes at whenever Lily harped on about it. But now it was all too real for him his nonchalant attitude about the fragility of life had gone out of the window. So had Remus'. However, whilst Sirius yelled and shouted and demanded they not go, Remus was quiet and thoughtful. He voiced the same concerns as he did but in a slightly less dramatic manner. He spoke measuredly, trying to get them to see reason. He too had tried to shift their opinion, stating calmly that perhaps someone with more experience would be better suited for this mission, but it was no use. Dumbledore had asked them. They would do it. They were so unmoveable about it and _far_ too comfortable with it for Remus' taste. It was at that point that he had lost his cool and, just coming down from the full moon, had had to resort to walking out of the room into the corridor, picking up a vase of flowers and throwing against the wall in frustration.

What none of them knew was that James and Lily _were_ both rather nervous about this mission and terrified of the consequences themselves. But they hadn't told anyone this, not even each other. And it was because their reason for being afraid was not for the sanctity of their own lives as their friends had wished it to be; it was not because they may find themselves in immediate danger, get tortured beyond insanity or lose their lives at the hand of Voldemort himself, but rather because they could see the person they loved so deeply undergo this treatment instead. They could lose each other. It was something neither one of them could begin to handle. It was incomprehensible. They could witness these things happening to the one person they knew they could not bear to watch in pain; each other. Neither one of them wanted to see the other hurt or killed as they knew they would not be able to handle living in the world if they were not side by side. So both had individually resolved that this would not happen. Little did they know that this was the exact reason they had been chosen for this mission in the first place.

They were set apart from the others, something which Dumbledore understood but not many others did, not even James and Lily. But it was why he had chosen them. Whilst other members of the Order would fight for their friends and give as good as they got, all willing to protect each other's backs, their commitment to this was limited; even the marauders, (though they would vehemently deny this). They all had something or someone else outside of the Order who they needed to survive for. So if worse came to worse, in a life and death situation, it was far more likely that anybody else would safeguard their own life and get themselves out before thinking of someone else. This was how people got left behind. But James and Lily were different and it was the love they shared that made it so. Both would be far more willing to die first than see the other be killed. Both would ensure the other one was safe, traveling to the ends of the earth to protect them, before worrying about themselves. And both would do nothing less than lay down their life to get the other to safety. _That _was why Dumbledore chose them. And that was why he was sending them off with ease, like children onto the school bus. Because he, unlike their friends, had no doubt in his mind that they would return.

They clasped hands and shared a single look with each other before disapparating out of the mansion and reappearing about a mile away from the location Dumbledore had given to them. Once there, they released each other, nodded quietly, and stealthily began a twenty minute walk through an abandoned forest area as the sun rose.

* * *

He was surrounded by them, the tall people in dark cloaks that he knew nothing about. They were doing stuff to him, hurting him, only he did not know how. He just kept hearing funny words and, in the brief moments where his eyes were not scrunched up in pain, seeing them wave a variant of twigs around. He didn't understand.

'_Carpe_ _retractum!' _

He was suddenly bound in ropes, adding to the ones that were already holding his legs together and his hands behind his back. The new ropes were tight around him but only momentarily as in an instant he was flipped out of them, the ropes pulled back and unravelling quickly as he was sent rolling across the floor. He collided heavily with the wall, his nose breaking as his head took the brunt of the crash. He was there for only a matter of seconds before-

'_Levicorpus!'_

His body was raised into the air. _How_? How was this happening to him? A fear gripped him, closing his throat and muffling his screams of terror which were not particularly audible anyway as he was gagged around the mouth. He was slung to the floor in what he presumed was the middle of the room. He couldn't be sure though. He had become disorientated with all that was happening to him.

There was laughing ringing around the room though he couldn't be one hundred percent certain of that either. There was an odd buzzing in his ears that was muffling most of the sound that was surrounding him. He desperately hoped that that was just his tinnitus acting up because any other option, despite what he knew was happening to him, what he knew was not a dream, was still too unbelievable. And why would people be laughing at this torture, at this pain? It was unhuman. It was sadistic. It was just plain wrong. He could not recall anyone he knew like this and he could not think of anyone in his life that would want to do him harm this way. He could think of no one in his life that was capable of inflicting such pain. He was a well-liked man with a sweet family. What had he done to deserve this?

'_Defodio_!'

'_Crucio!'_

'_Inflatus!'_

Several things happened at once and Ian Jacobs found himself in sheer agony. Part of his forearm felt as if it had been cut with a crude knife. He could feel blood trickling down his wrists but, thanks to his hands being tied behind his back, he could not see if this was the case. He could not see the thick chunk of skin that had been gouged out of his arm to the side of his wrist, his bone all bloody and chipped from the curse now visibly on show. But the sting of that was nothing compared to the searing pain he found coursing through his veins. His brain burst with agony, torture pulsing through him like he had never known before. And if that wasn't enough, his foot had swelled to three times its usual size, the ropes that were tied around his ankles becoming restricting and tight, cutting off his already poor circulation. He was very sure he was going to die right there and then. If only he had been so lucky.

There was a swishing crack and whatever noise he was able to make out was silenced. He had to wonder why. He opened his eyes to try and see what was going on but his vision was blurred with tears and pain. He was breathing deeply trying his hardest to make out shapes. But everything seemed the same; lots of cloaks and many twigs. He did not know the number had been joined by one. And he did not realise that it was this one who lifted all pain from him; his feet returning to their usual size, his wrist sealing its own wound together and the blinding white pain that he found in his mind suddenly gone. He was relieved, thinking maybe it was over. Maybe he was being rescued. Maybe this was just a bad dream. He didn't know.

* * *

James and Lily were sitting entangled in each other behind a wild unkempt bush. They were both covered by the invisibility cloak that had been passed from father to son for generations in James' family, clinging to each other; Lily nestled into James, fitting perfectly. It might've been romantic, both wrapped up warmly in the winter weather snuggling into each other, if they weren't both holding their breaths and fearing for their lives.

'_Homenum Revelio.' _came a deep voice from the other side of the bush.

Lily squeezed into James, terrified and James held her tighter in a protective manner, petrified of what might happen if they were caught. He expected something to happen. The spell to reveal a human presence in the area had just been cast. They were caught. It was over. But it wasn't. The cloak stayed securely over them, both still invisible to whatever death eaters had come over to find out why the caterwauling charm placed around the shack had gone off like an alarm. They didn't know how they were still safe but they were and that was all that mattered. Both let go of a silent sigh of relief.

They had just tried the shield penetration spell that Dumbledore had given them before they left, hoping as Dumbledore had that it would lower the barrier for a couple of minutes, long enough for the pair to trespass and enter Voldemort's hide out. It hadn't worked though. They didn't know why it hadn't worked but they were uncomfortable in the knowledge of its failure. Instead of lowering the protective perimeter into Voldemorts territory, it had set off a caterwauling charm, a loud high-pitched whistling emanating from the air, the moment the spell had been cast. As soon as this sound was audible, James had quickly grabbed Lily by the waist, pulled her into him and covered them both with the invisibility cloak, knowing that it was a much safer bet than running through what was not exactly dense forestry. It had been less than ten seconds later that two death eaters had come out to see what had happened. They were so close; James and Lily could smell their stale sweat. It was a long and intense minute.

They heard them walk away in quiet conversation.

'Must've been a rabbit or something.' one of them said receiving a murmur of agreement from the other.

They waited until they could no longer hear the crunching footsteps of the death eaters walking across the frosted grass before releasing the tight grasp they had on each other. They were both breathing deep, still under the invisibility cloak as they looked at each other, relieved they hadn't been caught.

'It didn't work.' Lily said, biting her lip and frowning as she stated the obvious. She looked to James, her eyes flitting worriedly between his. 'Why d'you think it didn't work?' she asked.

James shook his head, just as confused as she was. Surely a spell by Dumbledore was like the Holy Grail. It should have worked. He tried to search for a reason to give to her but only came up with feeble suggestions. 'Maybe there's more protection around the place than he thought?' he said with a shrug, 'I mean, we've never heard of there being a caterwauling charm before. Maybe…something counteracted the spell Dumbledore…' He shrugged again. 'Maybe we're just not powerful enough to break it.'

'Ok.' Lily said thoughtfully. In a sudden unprecedented movement she took the cloak off of her.

'Lily-'

'I need to see.' Lily said simply. She crawled to the edge of the shrubbery, on all fours, and peered around the bush to survey the scene.

With a frustrated sigh, James took the cloak off of himself and quickly stuffed it into the inside pocket of his jacket. There was no way he was going to stay under that cloak, invisible and safe when she was baring herself to danger. When the cloak was safely stowed away, he, also on all fours, peered around the bush with her, seeing what she was seeing. There, waiting at the door that lead inside the wooden shack were two death eaters, both masked and robed, their identities hidden. He hadn't recognised their voices when they heard them speak. Like cloaked henchmen, they guarded the door in silence. They were not speaking to each other, nothing like Order members would be.

'Ok.' Lily said again, 'There's only two death eaters.'

'Well done.' James whispered in reply.

She gave him a slightly derisive look.

'Sorry.' James said, holding back a smirk, 'Continue.'

She sat back behind the bush, James copying her and waiting for her to explain whatever it was she was thinking. She sorted her thoughts out in her head first before sharing them with him. He waited patiently.

'They passed the barrier.' she stated first, 'When they came to check what had sent off the caterwauling charm, they passed over the barrier. Which means whenever they cross over the boundary, the protection in that area is down right?'

'Right.' James agreed.

'So maybe the simplest plan is the best. We need to get them to stay on the boundary just long enough for _us_ to pass over.' she theorised, 'We can only go through if we're with them.'

'So your plan is for us to get caught?' James asked slightly concerned at this prospect. He wanted to rescue Ian Jacobs sure, but getting caught seemed like an awfully big risk. There was no way of knowing whether their getting caught would gain them enough access to reach the man or whether they would be killed on the spot for attempting it.

'No.' Lily reassured him, seeing the hesitation flit across his eyes, 'That can be plan B.' she joked.

'So what's plan A?' James asked.

Lily bit her lip, sorting through her thoughts again. James watched her face with fascination as he waited, seeing the plan formulate in her emerald eyes.

This, what was happening now, was another reason they were chosen for this mission. If it was pointed out to them, they would brush it off, stating that everyone would do this but it was simply not true. After Dumbledore's spell had failed, others would have run, abandoned the mission there and saved themselves, not confident enough to try and find another way around the shield of protection. But they didn't. They hadn't run, they had stayed, James had made sure of that. And even now that they were free to leave again they didn't. Instead they tried to formulate another plan to get themselves inside. Again, that was something that they would think any other Order member would do but they would be wrong. They would be wrong because this situation was unprecedented and the Order worked off of Dumbledore's orders and scenarios they had been in before. Simply put, none of them would have enough faith in themselves or each other to take on such a task without at least a guideline for it or experience. They were too cautious. None of them would put the amount of trust James had put in Lily now to go through with any spur of the moment plan. They would question it. But James wouldn't do that with Lily and she wouldn't do that with him. It was something Dumbledore had known when assigning this mission. It was something else that set them apart.

'We need to cast Dumbledore's shield penetration spell again.' she told him surely, 'And when they come to see why the caterwauling charm has gone off, we need to stun them as they cross the perimeter. They need to be…over it. Half in half out.'

'So we use them like bridges?' James summed up.

Lily nodded her head.

'All right then.' James said slowly. He looked around them. 'We can't do it here though.' he said.

He quickly popped his head over the top of the bush to make sure the coast was clear, to make sure the death eaters that had come over before weren't looking their way before grabbing Lily's hand, pulling her to standing and quickly darting with her to a nearby tree big enough to hide two. When they were both behind it, he pulled her into him, ensuring they were not visible, before taking the risk to peer his head around the trunk to make sure they hadn't been spotted. When he was confident that wasn't the case, he glanced down to her, looking her in the eyes with a secure nod.

'Here.' he said.

* * *

Voldemort looked around at his followers, all who looked slightly humbled at his appearance, bowing their heads at him in reverence. He glanced at them all with a dangerous look, one that they knew would mean they would be punished later for taking it upon themselves to torture Ian Jacobs, the man that was now fully healed from their inflictions and breathing heavily on the floor. It was not their place to torture the man. No one else but he was supposed to have the pleasure of that and he would make sure they understood that. If he said he was to torture someone, or kill someone, they would heed his words and not try themselves. If they did, he would make it be known that there would be severe consequences.

'It's Ian Jacobs, My Lord.' Bellatrix Lestrange said hastily, bobbing forwards and just waiting, wanting him to give her praise for bringing the man Voldemort desired to him. She wouldn't get it. None of them would

'I know who he is.' Voldemort simply said in a calm fashion, glancing around again at his followers. They all looked ready and waiting, willing to do whatever he wanted. All he had to do was give the command. But he said nothing. He glanced around at them, at the younger members, Bellatrix Lestrange, Evan Rosier and Wilkes. They had anticipation all over their faces, wanting to watch whatever Voldemort deigned to do to Ian Jacobs. His older followers, Lucius Malfoy and Rodolphus Lestrange all having a few years or more on their fellow death eaters, had somewhat similar expressions but, they also knew that it would be highly unlikely that they get to watch. That had only happened once or twice. Voldemort turned away from them, turning his back on Ian Jacobs as he whimpered on the floor in the strange silence of the room.

'Leave me.' Voldemort said suddenly, swishing his wand down into his hand as if it were a baton or a cane.

'But,' Rosier began, 'My Lord-'

'LEAVE ME!' Voldemort yelled.

He waited and listened to the rushed footsteps of his followers hurrying out of the room. They all shuffled outside to one of the outer rooms whilst others had gone

* * *

through the side door to the staircase that led down to the cellar room where he usually held his captives. They were hoping to catch a glimpse or else listen to the torture they knew he was about to unleash on the poor unfortunate man sobbing quietly behind him. But they would not be so lucky today. He quickly cast an imperturbable charm across the door and sealed it shut with a wave of his wand. Only when he could hear nothing but the despairing moans of his guest did he turn to face him.

He was pathetic. He was curled up on the floor in the foetal position, his arms tied behind his back and a gag tied around his mouth. The age that had once seemed distant from the old man's features as he had laughed with his family only half a day ago had found its way to his face. His hair was grey and wispy, his nose running, his eyes scrunched up, wrinkling his face and watering as he cried softly to himself, still reeling from the torture that had already been inflicted upon him by Voldemort's followers as they waited for their leader to arrive. He wasn't in pain from their cruelty anymore, all of that being lifted by their ringmaster when he turned up but he was in obvious despair and pain. He was pitiable. But Voldemort didn't pity. What he did do, was unbind him with a flick of his wand, the ropes that held his feet and hands together falling off, the gag coming loose and undone, folding onto the floor. He did not need him restrained.

'_Crucio!' _Voldemort cursed, pointing his wand at Jacobs and watching him writhe in pain.

His screams seemed inhuman somehow. His tears were faster and harder as he cried his voice croaky and horse but now fully audible thanks to the lack of gag. He had had a taster of this pain before, the searing white burning that ran through his bloodstream, but somehow, despite all other injuries being gone, this was worse than everything he had endured so far. His body writhed, his arms and legs now jerking out as if electrically shocked but that would probably be less painful. And his mind, his mind was now filled with unimaginable images. They burned his retinas and he couldn't rid himself of them. They seemed to be etched into his brain.

'No…No _please!' _he begged as he saw the cloaked man raise the stick in his hand. The strange word, the one that seemed to command the pain was spoken again.

'_Crucio!' _Voldemort said, a scary calm in his voice even though the action he was committed was far beyond such peacefulness.

Images filled Ian Jacobs' mind again, ones he wished to never see again. His family, lying broken and lifeless on the floor; his daughter beheaded and her body used for sick male pleasure by the cloaked people he thought he was rid of. His granddaughter…he could not even bare to put into words the image that was forced into his mind when it came to her. The debilitating physical pain again came with that single word but the emotional scars that were being carved into his soul were far worse than anything he could feel in nerve endings. So he thought.

The mental torture ceased and the physical torture began. It was ten times worse than he had already received. His body was raised into the air and whilst there, was broken and bruised and cut. His bones were splintered and broken and fractured all over his body. He was sticky with blood and laden with aches and pains. No words were being said so he never knew when the next attack against his flesh was coming. It just happened and he was flipped around in the air like a human ragdoll, unable to escape. He could do nothing more than release blood curdling screams that any sane person would not be able to stand to listen too. He looked mangled and defiled and was covered in his own urine that was dripping onto the floor. It was an effect of the torture that he was not able to control and ultimately, every ounce of dignity he believed he had was gone. He didn't know how long it was. It could have been minutes, hours or days but he knew that it felt like years. Years in his life past as he floated in the air being forced to take the brutality that was being forced his way until he was mercilessly flung to the ground. Every ache and pain, every cut and broken bone made themselves known again as he made hard contact with the floor.

And Voldemort laughed.

Ian Jacobs was in something beyond agony. He could not describe the pain on a relative scale for there was no word capable to define the intensity of it. The degree to which he had been destroyed was not describable. If he wanted to escape, he couldn't. He knew that from a medical standpoint he should be dead. He wanted to die. How he was still alive was a mystery to him. How he was even conscious was a mystery to him as he knew he should have passed out from the pain. But everything about this was a mystery. In no universe had he ever been able to imagine such things happening and yet they had.

'_Crucio._' Voldemort said again, done with the crude and vulgar physical brutality he reverted back to what he believed to be a more refined torture. To torment the body was easy. To inflict pain and anguish upon mortal flesh was anybody's game, even filthy muggles. Anyone could do it. But only he could torment the mind to a state of inconceivable insanity. It was far more sophisticated to play with the mind than it was the body, far more advanced and distinguished for mental wounds would never heal, even after death. They would remain ingrained into the soul, ready to return at any moment, giving him complete control over one person for their whole existence.

Jacobs mind was once more filled with terrifying images, ones he could never unsee. His body jolted, the pain of his injuries only adding to the agony of his mind. He screamed. He begged. He bargained. But this curse was inflicted on him again and again and again with only seconds of reprieve between. But the images never left his brain.

'Please!' he sobbed in one of these moments of reprieve, his voice nothing more than a faint echoing whisper, 'Please stop!'

His was subjected to torture again, helpless and feeble. Five minutes, ten minutes, an hour; he couldn't tell. There was a reprieve again.

'Stop…' he pleaded, tears streaming down his swollen face. His voice croaked as he wheezed his pleas for mercy. 'Please stop.'

Voldemort laughed again just staring at his quarry with a sick, twisted smile on his face.

'Why are you doing this? How are you doing this?'

'I am able to do this because I am the greatest wizard of all time and you, Jacobs, are a blemish in my past.' Voldemort said, sweeping calmly over to where Jacobs was curled on the floor in the position his torture had left him in last. He stopped when he was towering over him and then crouched down, holding his wand to Jacobs' head and turning it to face him. He spoke quietly to him, that smile still on his face as if what he was doing wasn't wrong. 'And for that,' he went on to say like he had never stopped speaking, 'you must be eradicated.

It was the first time Jacobs had seen the face of his tormentor and he, he who never forgot a face, recognised something familiar in him. It was a tell-tale sign of a boy he used to know from the place he grew up. An orphanage that was happy and wholesome on the most part but terrorised by a boy just a few years younger than himself. A boy that was somewhat twisted in his youth from abandonment, oddity, and a lack of love. He had that same awful, unforgiving look in his eye, the glaze that was so unfeeling and demented.

'Tom?' he whispered.

* * *

The caterwauling charm blared out again, the high pitched squeal coming from one particular section of the shacks protection, forcing death eaters over to check it out again. They walked over with a huffy strut, completely irritate at the situation, knowing, or believing they knew, that it was nothing but a small animal frolicking about in its natural environment. How irritating.

'Bloody rabbits!' the deep voiced one growled as he stormed over to the section James had cast Dumbledore's spell on. He was followed by a slightly smaller cloaked figure, one who wasn't in as much of a hurry to get to the siren blaring out.

'Kill them.' he said with a harsh tone, 'They only cause trouble.'

The other death eater agreed vehemently and was half way through verbally cursing the woodland creature, swearing that if he found it, it would die a brutal death when his threat was cut short. Quickly stepping out from where she was hidden behind the tree, Lily threw a stunning charm at him, causing him to fall to the floor midsentence landing nicely across the border of the protected area. The other death eater looked up to see where the spell had come from but could see no one; James had quickly pulled Lily back into him so she wouldn't be seen. Still, the death eater was understandably curious. People do not usually just drop to the floor.

'Who's there?' he said. He took his wand out and started to creep forwards, stepping round his companion's unconscious body as if it was nothing. He didn't care that he had just been knocked out; he was far more concerned that it could happen to him too. The 'bravery' that he showed was unparalleled. 'Show yourself.' he whispered rather tauntingly to the air.

Waiting behind the tree, James held Lily close for only three seconds more before somewhat reluctantly releasing her and allowing her to step out again, casting another well aimed stunning spell at the remaining death eater. Just like the first, he fell heavily to the ground unconscious, his body just over the line of protection. He had been so involved in looking for whoever had cast the spell that he had hardly recognised someone stepping out from behind the tree in front of him. All he had seen was a flash of red hair before he face-planted the floor. His poor reflexes had aided Lily's plan.

She stayed where she was, out of the protection of the tree, joined instantly by James who stood next to her casually with his hands in his pockets as if he was waiting with her at a bookshop whilst she perused the selection. He had pure faith in her, knowing in his heart that she had succeeded nicely in knocking the cloaked men out. So whilst she stood with her wand still raised in caution, looking over the two fallen men, he just waited for her to be satisfied in her own skills. When she was, she turned to look at him and nodded her head, needlessly informing him that it was done. He nodded once in return and the pair advanced to their stunned opposition. They moved quietly and stealthily, trying not to make a sound for they didn't one hundred percent know if there were any more death eaters waiting for trouble. They had there wands out just in case.

When they reached the protected area, they looked at each other, praying that this plan would work. After all, it was only a theory. There was no proof but the faith they had in each other that said it would succeed. They joined hands, just as they had when they originally set out for this mission, and took the step together, treading carefully into enemy territory.

It was a moment of pure relief when they realised they had done it. They had used human bridges to bypass protection enchantments that the self-proclaimed 'greatest wizard of their time' had cast himself. They had been able to do what even the actual greatest wizard of their time had failed to find a way to do. Two eighteen year olds, a witch and a wizard who had graduated from Hogwarts less than a year ago, via simplicity and innocent means, had done what should have been impossible. And that gave them relief and a sense of being, a sense of confidence, for it was a feat that should have gone straight over their heads. But with all feelings, a happy one is followed by sad and a feeling of relief is followed with dread.

There was a large crack of apparition, followed by a second less than a minute afterwards. It was so quick but it was slow, in slow motion. They had no time. They had no time to do anything other than cross a stupid border. They should have been more triumphant than this but they weren't. Because it wasn't a factor they had counted on, an appearance by other death eaters outside of the circle of protection, death eaters who weren't in the shack. It was in the time between the first pop of apparition and the second, everything happened.

James was struck down first and it wasn't surprising why. The couple had only enough time to turn around, their wands in hand, to see none other than Severus Snape swish his wand in a large round gesture and point it straight at James' chest. A jet of jagged purple light shot out of the tip of it, illuminating the sick jubilation in the greasy haired boys face as he was able to curse his once sworn enemy and knock him backwards. James fell to the ground with what seemed like finality, his head bobbing down and lulling to the side, his eyes closed. One hand fell across his chest and he looked as though he was sleeping. It was when this was so that Severus then his wand turned to Lily.

Time slowed for both of them as they faced each other. Lily had just watched as James fell to the ground, her stomach falling at the same time in dread. It was written all over her face, this fear, for she had no idea what jinx, spell or curse had been thrown at the boy she loved. She didn't recognise it, she didn't register it. What she did know was that a spark of fury had been lit. All she felt was a seething anger towards Severus, boiling red. She turned to face him. And she _had_ time. She _had_ time to throw a spell at him before the second death eater appeared, but she found herself in too much of a state of shock to even find the words that could save hers and James' lives. Because the minute her eyes had locked with his, her anger towards him over what he had just done to James was mixed with a saddened disbelief that she was actually seeing her old friend, here, swathed in death eater robes. She had known what he was about for years now. She had gotten herself out of that friendship because she knew it was toxic and she knew what he was going to become, what he had become. It had been told to her by Dumbledore and other members of the Order that Severus Snape was indeed a death eater. But seeing him here, in the flesh, it was different somehow. And it caused her to hesitate.

Severus looked at Lily with a cold hard glare. He had seen something he knew he would never be able to erase in Lily's face. He had seen that her heart had broken somewhat when he had cursed James Potter. Her eyes were a tell-tale give away, they always had been. Even from the distance he was away from her he saw that undeniable panic that could only come from love flicker in her eyes before those emerald green orbs were consumed with rage. Rage at him. And he couldn't forgive her for that. So he swished his wand again, taking advantage of the hesitation she had given when seeing him, and sent out a simple stunning spell. It hit her stomach and forced her to the ground to lie next to James. This, now, whatever happened next, for the second crack of apparition occurred almost instantaneously as Lily had hit the floor, would be punishment. After all the years of friendship he had given her, she should have loved him. She should not love James Potter.

* * *

**Let me know what you think!**

**The next update will be 5th October!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	30. Chapter 29

**Hey guys!**

**Sorry this update is a little late but Uni is a little hectic at the minute. Anyway, it's done so here you go, the resolution to that cliff-hanger!**

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Nine**

'How did they get in?' Voldemort demanded of Severus and Avery, the two who had apparated to the shack just as James and Lily had crossed the border.

They had arrived together out of necessity rather than nicety. They had both been working a night shift at their respective jobs, Severus at Mulpeppers Apothecary and Avery at Moribund's, the job that Severus had wanted first, when they caught wind of the news. They were taking the annual January stock take for their shops but, after finding out that Ian Jacobs had been captured, had cut their shifts short by an hour, met in Knockturn Alley by chance as they were locking up, and had come to an unspoken agreement to head over to Voldemorts hideaway together. And, as Avery had proclaimed, it was damn lucky they had or that 'filthy mudblood' and her 'blood-traitor boyfriend' might have trespassed even further into their territory. Now, they were explaining their findings to Voldemort and their fellow death eaters who had been allowed back into the main room to listen.

They were all stood around the back of the room in a semi-circle, even the two who had initially been knocked out by Lily, for Severus and Avery had cast the counter curse on them. Not to spare them punishment or humiliation mind you, but to see what Voldemort would do to them for allowing the trespassers through. Severus and Avery were set a little bit further forwards than the rest, dead centre with James and Lily at their feet, speaking to their master informatively as if he were a teacher at Hogwarts. They had a calm about them whilst the others twitched a bit nervously and that was because they knew they were not in trouble. They knew nothing was their fault and if anything, they would be rewarded for stopping two Order members from getting into the shack whilst they were still conscious. Their reward would not be material gain but it would be symbolic. They could be given free reign over a muggle area to do as they see fit, given a few names of people Voldemort wanted brought to him or, the highest honour of all, they would be moved up the table to sit closer to the Dark Lord when they met. It all seemed brilliant.

'We don't know My Lord. We apparated in and they were over the border.' Severus replied, bowing his head respectfully as he addressed Voldemort. He turned his head to look behind him at the two death eaters whom he had brought back to consciousness and smirked maliciously at them. 'Crabbe and Goyle had been stunned, My Lord.'

Crabbe and Goyle shuffled back slightly, some of the other death eaters glancing with anticipation between them and Voldemort. Voldemort of course ignored this for now. He was ignoring a lot of things in this room. For now that also included James and Lily lying unconscious before Severus and Avery's feet and the mangled body of Ian Jacobs, (who was still tragically alive), curled up to the side of the room where he had landed when he was quite literally being thrown into torturous images of his family being brutalised. He was sobbing silently, ignored by uncaring people except for the occasional gleeful glance at what their master was capable of.

'I've taken their wands, My Lord. But if we hadn't have arrived when we did.' Avery said pompously, taking a step forwards and glancing quickly to Crabbe and Goyle with just an echo of the jubilation Severus had, 'Who knows how far they could have gotten.'

Voldemort raised his head slightly at his followers. He snapped a look at the two in question, and let them into a harsh reality. 'I shall deal with you later.' he said in a low deathly whisper.

Some of the death eaters watching, Wilkes, Rodolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange and Evan Rosier all sniggered at the prospect of this. And unlike the torture of Ian Jacobs, for which they were only allowed a brief momentary glimpse of the result, they would be allowed to witness the punishment set before their fellow cohorts. It was a sick pleasure they all took, watching their own be tortured.

Voldemort walked forwards, his eyes now resting on the two Order members. He should kill them right there and then. He should find out who they are, kill them and send 'unfortunate' word back to Dumbledore informing him that the great soldiers who he obviously believed had adequate skill to take on the pointless mission to rescue Ian Jacobs, were both dead. But Voldemort did not like to be left out of the lurch. These two had somehow managed to bypass his security and he wanted to know how. He needed to know how if it wasn't to happen again. With his bare foot he touched the girls face, turning it to the side to get a better look at her.

Severus' suddenly became aware that Lily was in immediate danger, something he hadn't thought through when cursing her in 'punishment'. Consequences of that choice buzzed around his head; her lifeless body ending up in a similar state to the man by the wall. Her mind tortured and sent back to Dumbledore as a befuddled message. It was almost all too much for him. But there was nothing he could do about it. If there was a way to convince Voldemort to spare her he would. Perhaps informing him of her relationship with James Potter, slyly suggesting that it would tear her to pieces to see him die would be enough of a victory for Voldemort and he would let her go, let her return to Dumbledore and give him the message Voldemort so desperately wanted him to receive. Hopefully, there would be some way to put this motion into plan. Severus was a smart boy and, over a couple of months, had become rather trusted by Voldemort in this circle. If anyone could do it he could. But for now he needed to guard himself and put to use his Occlumency skills.

'Who are they?' Voldemort asked, lifting his toe from Lily's cheek and returning to a balanced stance.

'The boy is James Potter, My Lord.' Severus said instantly before Avery could speak, 'And that is his…girlfriend.' The words tasted sour in his mouth but he left Lily's name out as if it would minimise the danger she was in.

But Avery continued, attempting to give out the information Severus had conveniently left out. 'The girl is a-'

'Potter?' Voldemort said, cutting Avery off midsentence, not allowing him to reveal Lily's name or blood-status much to Severus' relief. No. Voldemort had fixated on the name that Severus had given. His head turned sharply to Bellatrix whose eyes went wide at the harsh look on her. 'Did I not give you the task of killing this blood traitor?' Voldemort demanded of her, kicking the top of James' head with the foot that had been on Lily's cheek.

'M-My Lord…' Bellatrix began, stumbling over her words, her body leaning forwards pleadingly to Voldemort, her dark brown eyes boring over to Voldemort with desperate adoration.

'He does not look dead to me!' Voldemort stated, his eyes narrowed at her.

'My Lord,' Bellatrix repeated, coming forwards a little bit, a grovelling look about her, 'He-he was as good as when I left him. I left him for dead, My Lord.' she lied quickly, bowing her head. She continued with her lie, not to avoid punishment at the hand of Voldemort, something which she would gladly take, but to avoid disappointing him, something she didn't think she could stand. Bellatrix, unlike Voldemort, could love. But her love was obsessive and idealistic, similar to the love Severus harboured for Lily. Bellatrix continued, her eyes begging to be believed. 'I had cut him open, My Lord. He was bleeding and suffering when I left him there to die, on his filthy blood-traitor parents' grave. He was so close to death, My Lord. I am just as shocked as you that he lives.'

'Liar!' Voldemort spat at her.

Rodolphus pulled her back into the line of death eaters as she stayed under Voldemort's wavering glare.

Voldemort thought for a moment. 'No matter.' he said measuredly, turning away from his followers, his back to them as he spoke. 'Severus, put them downstairs. They have something to answer to. The rest of you…leave. I have some business to take care of here.'

Severus bowed his head and took out his wand. Whilst the other death eaters filed to an outside room, he levitated the unconscious pair and flew their bodies through the air to the side door that led down into the cellar. He was proud to be asked to put them in holding because it meant that, when he returned, he would be able to stay in the main room whilst Voldemort finished whatever it was he was intending to do to Ian Jacobs. It also meant that, when Jacobs was dead, Severus could possibly broach the subject of Lily's living with his master. It was his only chance. He would think about that in whatever time he had left. But right now, being careful to conceal the gentle approach he was taking with Lily, he took the couple into the cellar for holding.

When he got down there, he literally dropped James' body on the floor, hard and carelessly, before turning his attention to Lily. He let her fall into his arms from where he had her floating peacefully, catching her and revelling in the feel of her. He held her as he had always hoped to do one day, bridal style, close into his chest. He took comfort in the fact that he was able to do so without being looked upon with disapproval and shame by his fellow death eaters. They would not condone it, him holding her so lovingly. She was a mudblood. But she was so perfect in his arms, so peaceful in the sleep he had forced on her that he couldn't help himself. She was his for two minutes. She was lighter than he expected her to be. She was thin and slight and perfect, at least in his mind. He knew she would pick out imperfections in herself as she had done during the later years of their friendship but it didn't matter. To him she had none; idealised on the pedestal held her on. The only thing she had ever done wrong in her life was fall for James Potter, and that wasn't her fault it was his. He held her tightly, breathing in her floral scent that came from her shampoo. He brought her head up, lowering his own to meet it and smelt her deep red hair, closing his eyes and taking it in.

He stood holding her for quite a few minutes, savouring his time with her. But he didn't want to push it. He needed to return to Voldemort and besides, he knew Lily could regain consciousness at any minute. She would not take too kindly to him holding her that way, he knew. It was for this reason too that he did not risk kissing her as he longed too, though he did have opportunity. But when he kissed her he wanted her to kiss back, not be subjected to it through a lack of consciousness. So instead, he walked over to a dry patch of the wall and sat her down elegantly against it, moving her so that she was sat up and her legs were out in front of her, crossed at the ankles, he hands in her lap. He looked at her for a couple of seconds, brushing her hair out of her face and studying her sleeping face, wishing he could see her eyes. But he couldn't. He settled for stoking his hand down the front of her body, moving over her contours and curves. He crouched in front of her for a couple of minutes, memorising her, before standing up and leaving the room. As he left, he gave James a swift hard kick in the face, took one last look back at Lily, closed the door and left them in dim darkness.

* * *

James woke with a start. He sniffed and blinked his eyes and something was wrong on both accounts. His nose felt as if it was broken. He lifted his hand up to check and see if it was bleeding but he found that he couldn't make it out. His vision was blurred and that was probably due to his glasses not being where they belonged. But he couldn't see any blur of red so he took it to mean that he wasn't bleeding. He sat up against the wall he was lent haphazardly against, his head pounding as he moved. He made a pained groan. Hopefully that headache was just due to his broken nose.

'James?' came a small voice a little way in front of him.

'Yeah?' James said in reply, trying to make Lily out. But it was no use. His eyesight was awful and without his glasses he was next to useless.

'Thank god!' Lily said, leaving the line she had been pacing and practically flying to kneel in front of him. 'Are you ok?' she asked him concernedly. She pushed his hair back from his forehead a couple of times and looked between his eyes worriedly. 'I couldn't heal you. They've taken our wands. Are you ok?'

'It's fine. I mean, I can't see, I think my nose is broken and my head is pounding but yeah, I'm-I'm peachy keen.' James said, trying to focus on her. 'Do you know where my glasses are?'

Lily took her hands away from him and began to fumble in her jacket pocket. 'Yeah.' she said as she did so, pulling out his glasses. 'Here.' She started to put them on him but he took over.

'Thanks.' he said, fixing them to place and widening his eyes slightly at the correction in his vision, 'Why'd you have them?' he asked, now looking around where they were in slight confusion.

The room they were in was damp with what looked like green mould growing on the wall. That or lime-scale from the dripping pipes that ran around the top. It smelt dirty and dank, like mud, kind of like they were underground. It struck him that that could actually be the case and he looked to Lily with a slight panic in his eyes.

'They fell off when I moved you to the wall.' Lily explained hurriedly. She began to ramble as if she felt guilty about something. 'And-and your head banged and it was down and I-I couldn't get them back on with your head down and I didn't, want them to fall off and break or something if you moved whilst you were out so I, put them in my pocket.'

That explained James' headache. He hoped his head wasn't bleeding. He couldn't feel anything, just a dull throbbing. He nodded his head slowly, trying to figure out what had happened to get them where they were, why she had needed to move him against a wall. He couldn't fully remember. He knew that they had crossed the border into Voldemorts land. He knew that. But what had happened afterwards was a blur that he just couldn't seem to make out. And unlike with his vision, he couldn't just put glasses on to bring it into focus.

'What happened?' he asked Lily.

Lily bit her lip. 'Plan B?' she said, attempting to make light of the situation they were in but her expressive eyes betraying her as an unmistakable worry appeared in them at her own words.

James looked slightly confused. Plan B was getting caught. And they were certain, he was certain, that that wouldn't happen. Lily's plan, though simplistic, was utter genius and they had gotten through the force field of protection that the Order had never been able to penetrate before. What on earth had gone wrong? What hadn't they factored in?

James breathed out with a slight frown. 'How?' he said.

Lily's bottom lip quivered and she looked down at her hands which were shaking far too much to even complete her usual nervous habit of drawing circles on whatever surface was nearest. Her eyes filled with tears as she looked up to James, apology written across her face. 'I'm so sorry.' she began, shaking her head slightly, 'I had time to get us out. I had time. Snape sent some sort of purple light at you and there was enough time to curse him back and get us out but I-I hesitated. I hesitated and I don't know why and I'm so sorry James, I'm so sorry.'

A few silent tears began to fall down her cheeks. She was kicking herself for endangering their lives. She believed the blame rest solely on her for that slight hesitation. She didn't know that it didn't matter either way as Avery had appeared only seconds after she had been knocked out. She wouldn't have actually been able to get them out either way as she thought and she would never know that this was the case.

'No.' James said, shaking his head in denial and pulling her into him. He sat up straight to hold her close. He kissed her hair then rested his chin on her head, looking up to the ceiling of the dank room as he spoke. 'No. It's not your fault Lils. It's not. Don't you dare think that.'

Lily lifted herself out of James' hold and looked at him, tears resting in her eyes. 'B-but I hesitated.' she cried, 'I let him get the better of me.'

James couldn't tell her she hadn't hesitated when she adamantly proclaimed she had. He wasn't conscious for it. He didn't know. He took her face in his hands and looked her in the eyes. 'It is not your fault.' he stated, 'Ok?'

Lily closed her eyes, a couple of tears escaping. 'But-'

'No.' James cut her off. He wiped her tears away with his thumbs. 'It's not. You have to believe that, you hear me?'

Lily paused for a second and reluctantly nodded her head. She didn't believe it but he needed her too. So she let him think it. It was all she could do. She manoeuvred herself to sit next to him with her legs tucked in to her side. She lent her head on his shoulder whilst he had a protective arm around her, rubbing her arm comfortingly and resting his head upon hers.

They were silent for a couple of minutes. James' eyes roved around the cellar, trying to think of a way out of there, a way that wouldn't draw too much attention to them. But he could see no escape, with or without magic. They had no wands to try with anyway.

'We need to find a way out of here.' he said quietly.

'There's a door over there.' Lily said making no obvious move to show where she was on about. But James understood anyhow. 'It's locked though. I think it's the only way out.'

'Ok.' James said slowly, his jaw clenching as he thought. He exhaled a puff of air. 'We still need to get to Jacobs too.'

Lily took her head off of his shoulder and shook her head slightly. 'I don't think we can get to him now.' she whispered, 'The screaming stopped an hour ago.'

James' face fell. They had failed. They had been chosen for this mission and right now he couldn't see why. Anyone else could have done a better job. They wouldn't have let this happened. They wouldn't have let their charge die and get themselves captured and locked up for Merlin knows how long.

James looked up from the spot he had been staring at on the floor. 'How long have I been out?' he said.

'I don't know.' Lily answered. She'd lost track of time whilst she had been awake. She had waited for what had felt like an eternity for James to come too and she had guessed at any time reference she had given him so far because she had no real way of knowing. 'You're watch stopped.' she told him.

James took in a small breath and lifted his hand to chest level, studying his watch for a couple of seconds. It had broken. The glass was cracked and the dials had bent. He swallowed hard. It was just a watch but to him it was more. It was his seventeenth birthday present from his Mum and it was an exact replica of his Dad's watch. It was precious to him and now it was broken. And he didn't know if he could be repaired.

He sighed. 'This day just keeps getting worse.' he said. He was slightly upset at his broken watch but, one look up at Lily and he knew that this was not what she should have to deal with right now. He had to be strong for her, not go to pieces over a watch. He brushed her hair out of her face and held her chin, attempting a smile at her. 'Next time we book our holiday.' he joked feebly.

Lily didn't laugh. 'What if we don't get out of here?' Lily asked. She looked small.

'We will.' James stated surely.

She didn't look convinced. 'I'm scared James.' she breathed fearfully.

James swallowed hard. The look in her eyes was enough to stop his heart cold. 'I know.' he whispered back, 'Me too.'

Lily gave him a weak smile. 'You once told me you weren't scared of anything.' she said.

James smiled back feebly. He looked into her eyes and moved his hand on to rest slightly curled on her cheek, his fingers reaching her hair and bringing it forwards though he had just brushed it back. 'I'm scared of losing you.' he said.

Lily broke a genuine smile and snatched a breath. 'You can be so cheesy sometimes you know that?' she said to him with a tearful laugh, 'Here we are in a life or death situation and yet you can still find it in yourself to be cheesy.'

James smiled at her and wiped away a tear that had escaped her with his thumb. 'It's true.' said in a simple, honest whisper before he lent his forehead upon hers. 'But at least I made you smile.'

There was a slight pause. Lily rested her hand on James' wrist and closed her eyes. James could see she was about to break so he parted her lips with his own, kissing her tenderly through her silent tears. It was affectionate and soothing until the door to the room banged open and a curse was shot at James, cutting his shoulder deeply and forcing him to withdraw from Lily roughly, winded from the pain.

'James!' Lily gasped when she saw his arm, her eyes wide.

'It's fine.' James reassured her, knowing the curse that had been thrown at him had nothing to do with being held captive for Voldemort. It was a schoolboy vendetta. He turned to look up at Severus with displeasure. 'Been waiting a long time to do that have you?' he asked, shaking his head and pressing his hand to the bleeding wound in hopes of stopping it..

'Was there any need for that?' Lily yelled at Severus, shooting him a glare. Any vulnerability she'd shown with James wiped away now that Severus was there. It was almost as if she was a different person. She helped James up to his feet and tried to assess his wound. It was hard to do because he wasn't particularly forthcoming at moving his hand. Plus, he was wearing layers; a thick winter jacket, a shirt and a t-shirt underneath.

'Oh there was need.' James said, narrowing his eyes at Severus, speaking directly to him even though it seemed the words were for Lily. But James and Severus knew different. James' words told him exactly what he thought of his feelings for Lily. 'In his sick, obsessive mind there was a need.'

He took a deep breath and lowered his hand from his shoulder, not letting Severus get to him for he knew his tricks now. He had become quite educated in them during their last two years at Hogwarts. He would use Lily against him, rile him up. Or else he would just curse him to watch him suffer. James wasn't giving him the satisfaction of showing any pain. He stood defiantly, waiting. But Severus had no time to retaliate for Avery had joined him at the door. He, and only he, had been allowed back into the main room as he had been the other person to bring James and Lily in. It was he who'd searched them and taken their wands away.

'The Dark Lord is getting impatient Snape.' Avery hissed, pushing past Severus. 'He wants them _now_.'

James thought fast as Avery clomped towards him. His mind flashed back to when he was younger and his Father used to tell him stories of being an auror. One particular tale stuck out in his mind, a story that centered on a chance disarming of his Dad. He'd shown James what he'd done in that situation and right now, it stood out in his mind clear as day. So just as Avery opened his cloak to reveal the pocket that held his wand, (and James and Lily's), James grabbed Avery's wrist and twisted it backwards, hitting him on the side of his head with the side of his free hand at the same time. He knocked him out with a forceful conk. As Avery fell to the ground, with skills honed from years of Quidditch, he quickly grabbed all three wands and threw Lily's to her. He breathed in relief, thanking Merlin it had worked and for his Dad too.

The second Avery hit the floor the remaining three found themselves in a stalemate; Lily and James had pointed their wands at Severus and he had turned his wand on James, (obviously). But now that he had his wand back, Severus knew he no longer had the upper hand. When both boys were armed, Severus' wand might as well be absent and they both knew it. They may be out of Hogwarts but it didn't change that fact.

James raised his eyebrows. 'You've never been able to beat me before. What makes you think that you're gonna be able to now?'

'Put your wand down Snape.' Lily said, slowly, trying to reason with him even though, inevitably, she knew it was no use. 'Put it down, and let us go.'

'I can't do that.' Severus spat at her, 'My life would be in danger.'

Lily gave a laugh of disbelief, the fear she'd shown James eradicated from her expression, the only hints that it had been there at all being her wet eyelashes. 'And ours aren't.' she said sarcastically.

Severus gave an unbecoming smirk, looking pointedly at Lily. 'Don't worry.' he said as if it was supposed to be comforting, '_Your _life's not in danger.' He glanced over to James maliciously.

You see, Severus had already spoken offhandedly to Voldemort giving out what must've seemed like harmless ideas of what he would do with them before revealing a master plan in disguise, one Voldemort lingered on and adopted as his own. And Severus believed it was brilliant. He had devised a hidden plan to keep Lily alive. The first stage was offering up the girl he claimed to love so deeply to the cruciatus curse. Then it relied on what he believed was purely James' need to be a hero, to stop the torture and give the information that Voldemort seeked. After this, James Potter would die and imperius curse would be placed on Lily. She would be kept alive, (as Severus wanted), but she would no longer be her own person. She would be used as a mole, to feed information back to Voldemort. But she would be alive and for Severus, that was good enough. What was more, James Potter would no longer have her like Severus longed to. He didn't see that his plan was twisted. And he didn't see the reason why James Potter would've never thought of it.

James rolled his eyes at the implications he was given; that Severus had somehow ensured Lily's safety and James' death. But if Severus thought he had any sort of control over these facts then he was sorely mistaken. It wasn't his decision to mark James for death; James had done that to himself the minute he had joined the Order. And Severus could never keep Lily safe when he stood for the very reason she was in danger. James shook his head at Severus' delusion.

Lily was less calm about Severus' implications. Instead of facial expressions, she sent out a stunning curse to Severus without warning. When he collapsed she gave a visible shudder. 'Oh he makes my skin crawl.' she said, dropping her arm and turning to face James.

James shrugged. 'You were friends with him.' he said but upon receiving a look from Lily tacked on the end 'not that this is the time to point it out-I'll shut up.'

'That might be best.' Lily nodded. She looked between the two knocked out death eaters, a scene not all too unfamiliar as this was how they had started this mission. Now they needed to end it. She was anxious and nervous and felt like she was going to be sick. She just wanted to go home, to return to that relaxing mint room, lock the door, get into bed and hide under the covers with James' arms around wrapped securely her. But they couldn't do that. 'We need to get out of here.' she said.

'You confuse me sometimes you know that?' James said suddenly, completely out of context and not at all focusing on the dangerous situation they were still in. Instead he was looking at Lily with a sort of far off wonderment.

'What?' Lily asked in confusion, looking at him bewildered. Now really wasn't the time to focus on anything other than their survival.

'You were basically crying not five minutes ago.' James said, nodding to the place where they had been sat before, where he had been trying to comfort her. 'And now you have steel in your eyes.' He continued, pausing and looking her up and down. 'It's really sexy.'

Lily blinked at him in disbelief. 'Now's _really _not the time James.' she said.

'Right sorry.' James said quickly, shaking his hand at his comments as if to wipe them away.

'Thank you.' Lily said, trying to focus again on was doing and what the situation demanded of her burying that feeling of throwing up, of anxiety, fear and nervousness and what might happen to them. She couldn't think of that right now like she had before. 'We need to find a way out of here.' she repeated.

James nodded his head in agreement. He thought for a second before some semblance of a plan came to him. 'We're gonna need their help.' he said, gesturing to the two unconscious boys on the floor.

'Yeah I don't think they're gonna do that.' Lily stated as if it was obvious.

'They don't need to know they're helping us.' James explained, 'The only way we're gonna get out of here with a fighting chance is if they take us up there. We've been held for a reason; otherwise we'd be dead by now. He wants something from us and if we go out there as if that's what he's gonna get, then it's gonna be easier to take him by surprise and get out of there. And, we need to get Jacobs…his body. We have to give his family closure and the only way we're gonna get close enough is if _they _take us up there.'

It was Lily's turn to nod her head. 'Okay.' she said, processing what James had said. She looked up to him and bit her lip. He had trusted her plan to get them in. She needed to trust his to get them out. 'What do we do?' she asked.

James exhaled a breath of air, an expression flitting across his face as if he had just decided. 'Memory charms.' he said, 'Take them back to when Avery came in. Modify it so that they think Avery got his wand out so he doesn't check that he's still got ours. Then…we let them take us upstairs. And the second Voldemort turns his wand to kill…' he paused, hating that thought. 'We stun, banish, smoke screen. Grab Jacobs and hightail it out of there. But…if worse comes to worse and we-we can't get to Jacobs, we use the cloak. They couldn't find us under that. Hopefully that wasn't a onetime deal.'

Lily nodded her head but also came to a realisation she didn't particularly like. 'You're not going to let me heal you are you?' she asked him, looking at his injuries; his broken nose, his shoulder which was bleeding profusely. She was worried about his blood loss. Adrenaline could take him so far but he could pass out from it.

'You can't.' James stated bluntly, unintentionally tensing his arm, 'They'll know something's up if you do.'

She looked begrudgingly accepted this fact because, quite simply, he was right. And as much as she hated it she knew it would be foolish endanger their lives by healing him. Besides, the sooner this was over, the sooner she could get him home and back to health. She took one last look at him before walking over to Severus and setting to work. She wiped his mind of the transaction that had occurred after Avery had entered the room. It was a quick ten second job, after which, she returned to her position. She watched James do the same to Avery and put the boy's wand into his hand. It gave her an uneasy feeling, knowing both death eaters were armed again and that they weren't allowed to protect themselves from them if they did anything. If they did, they would risk ruining James' escape plan. After all, for it to work, neither of them could use their wands until they faced Voldemort. But if James was hurt again Lily didn't know if she'd be able to sustain the act of being defenceless for long.

'You ready?' James asked her as he returned to his position.

'No.' she whispered, trying to mentally prepare herself for this face off. It wasn't ideal and it wasn't anything she had ever expected. The only person she had ever thought would face Voldemort was Dumbledore. But it was them; two eighteen year olds facing the darkest wizard in history. It felt wrong, it felt terrifying.

James reached out and took her hand. 'Hey.' he said, 'It's gonna be alright. Ok?'

Lily looked at the confidence in his warm hazel eyes and nodded her head. James lifted her hand and kiss the back of it once, squeezing it supportively before reluctantly letting go, losing that contact, and facing forwards. He waved his wand and levitated the two boys to standing simultaneously. When both boys were on their feet, Lily invoked life back into them with a simple charm. The death eaters came too. This was it.

Severus and Avery picked up where James and Lily had determined as if nothing more had happened since Avery entered the room. Avery seized Lily and pushed her forwards to Severus. He told him to take her out of the room which he did, leading her by the elbow, his wand on her back. It set James' teeth on edge but he as she was forced up the stairs, Lily looked back at him and gave him a look that clearly told him to keep calm. He obeyed and let her go, waiting barely a second before being roughly grabbed by Avery. He twisted the arm that was still bleeding behind James' back and marched him forwards in pursuit of Severus and Lily, holding his wand threateningly to his neck. They climbed the stairs quickly and were soon in the main room of Voldemort's hideaway.

There were several things to take in. One; the room was long. The door at the end seemed to be the logical exit but it was still far away meaning when James and Lily attempted their escape, they would have to be as quick as possible to get there. Two; Ian Jacob's was curled up in the far corner as if he were discarded trash that needed to be taken out. His body was sickeningly mangled beyond recognition and contorted in position. His skin was torn and bloody and some of his bones were visible. There was no way he was alive. And three; Voldemort. He was stood, tall and cloaked with his back to them but they still had the sense that he knew exactly where they were in the room. They couldn't underestimate him but they could rely on his underestimation of them.

Avery and Severus stopped in the middle of the room with Lily and James. Severus had been somewhat gentle with Lily but Avery was less so with James. Probably because unlike Severus had for Lily, Avery had nothing but contempt for James. It was unfortunately a common feeling for that graduation year at Hogwarts, (mostly in Slytherin house), when it came to James Potter; you either hated him, wanted to be him, or wanted to be with him. There was no in-between. And there was no stopping whatever you chose when you were free from the conformity of school especially when you could now act upon whatever feelings you had towards him with no consequence. So Avery twisted his arm further behind his back and kicked him in the back of the leg.

'Ow, easy!' James said to him, through gritted teeth, taking in the pain and standing his ground. 'No need to be so violent!'

As Avery pushed his wand further into James' neck, forcing his head up, Voldemort turned around and fixed James with a cold stare. James returned it with no issue, not focusing on the fact that his death could be imminent or that he was facing the darkest wizard of his time. He wasn't going to show any sort of fear towards him. After all, he was only a man. And James believed in treating everyone equally, even if Voldemort didn't, so, instead of being afraid, he spoke cheekily to him, indicating towards Avery. 'So hard to find good help these days, am I right?' he smirked with a breathless laugh.

He was kicked again in the back of his leg, his arm yanked again. He showed a second of pain before giving another laugh as if he was silently asking them if that was the best they could do. But it all stopped when he glanced towards Lily who was looking towards him with a heart-stopping expression. She closed her eyes at James' comment, her bottom lip giving an unintentional quiver. Then, and only then, did terror enter his being.

'Ah…So that's his game.' Voldemort said, more to himself than to anyone in the room who would be greatly confused by is words. But Voldemort now knew. He leered at the look James Potter had given to the girl, finally understanding why Dumbledore had done what he had, why he had sent two children into the arms of danger and why he had thought they had the power to take him on. It was love. These two were in love, something which Dumbledore foolishly held in high regard. But he should know that such trivialities had no effect on him. He moved on without giving it a second thought and gestured for Avery to release his hold on James.

Avery gripped tighter on James, causing him just a little bit more pain before releasing him, throwing him forwards a little bit. James didn't let it faze him. He stood up straight and defiant.

'Tell me something, Potter.' Voldemort was saying as this happened, his wand still trained on James, 'How did you get in?'

James thought for a second, his fear of his position masked by sarcasm and inappropriate humour. He shrugged. 'We walked.'

Voldemort gave a mirthless laugh as if he almost found it funny, and James just gave him a sort of sardonic smile. The boy was fine with this so far, unphased and uncaring that his life was in the balance. So perhaps, feeding off of the information he had uncovered himself, Voldemort needed to up the ante and give him a reason to talk. He switched his focus.

'_Crucio.' _he said, pointing his wand at Lily.

Suddenly, Lily doubled up in agony, falling on her knees, being released by Severus as if she was fire. A scream was involuntarily drawn from her lips as a hot blinding pain coursed through her veins. She went ghostly pale and scrunched up her eyes, the tears that she had managed to keep at bay since the cellar springing to her eyes and spilling out of the corners. Her chest tightened and she felt such an undeniable sorrow that it became hard to breath. She wanted it to stop the moment it had started. And even though that was practically what happened, it felt as if she was under that curse for an eternity.

You couldn't count the time between Voldemort casting his unforgivable curse to James' pleas. 'No!' he shouted, all humour removed from his face as he skidded down onto his knees next to Lily. 'No! Stop! Please! I'll tell you! Just don't hurt her!' he begged.

Voldemort lifted the curse but kept his wand on Lily as a threat, waiting for James to tell him the information he wanted.

When the spell was lifted from Lily, she was shivering and James did his best to comfort her, to comfort himself. He took her in his arms, pulling her close. She leaned into him and trembled from the release of the spell, crying into his shoulder, not how she had been in the cellar hold when she could talk and tears only escaped her at moments, but heart-breaking body-wracking sobs. He stroked her hair soothingly but his need to comfort her was against him.

'_Crucio.' _Voldemort said again, cursing Lily whilst she was still in James' arms, punishing him for taking his time to answer.

Lily's body shook and she, once again emitted a blood curdling scream as the agony returned to her. Images flashed in her mind and she couldn't seem to rid herself of them. She was sobbing, begging nonsensically for it to stop.

'We stunned them!' James shouted to Voldemort, feeling such a hatred to him that he had never before though possible. 'We stunned two of your followers and used them as bridges.' James said all at once, holding Lily to him tightly and rocking her back and forth as if that would somehow stop her pain. 'That's it. That's all it was. Now stop it!' He didn't think of the consequences of what he had said, that he had just revealed a secret that the Order could have used in later days. But he didn't care if it meant Lily wouldn't be cursed again.

Voldemort left it a couple of seconds, waiting for James to beg him to stop once more, which he did with a break in his voice and an expression of devastation. Only then did Voldemort life Lily's torture.

'How…primitive.' he said with a slight hiss in his voice. He turned his back on them and walked forwards, twirling his wand through his fingers in thought. He searched his mind for a solution to his own followers' idiocy. They would simply have to take twice the punishment.

'Find Crabbe and Goyle.' Voldemort instructed Severus and Avery.

'Yes, My Lord.' they said in unison, bowing their heads at Voldemort and making to leave.

Severus took one quick look back at Lily. She seemed to be enclosed in a bubble with James, looking into his eyes as he looked into hers. He had sat her up on her knees, kneeling opposite her and was holding her arms, rubbing them soothingly, touching her face, wiping away her tears and pushing her hair back, trying to get her to stop crying. He looked in about as much pain as she did but somehow, he had gotten her tears to lessen. Severus didn't understand. He turned away from them and followed Avery out of the room as James began to help Lily to standing.

When he heard the door close, Voldemort sealed it with a tap in the air. No one else would be allowed in the room whilst he dealt with these two. And when they were both dead, he would deal with Crabbe and Goyle. He turned back towards James and Lily who were now stood up, still looking each other in the eye communicating silently. Voldemort sneered at them.

'Dumbledore's great protectors.' he said, 'He really should think twice about sending those so…unskilled, to fight his battles. It will only result in death.' Voldemort went on to say. He had been walking towards them slowly all this time, locked in his own world, jeering Dumbledore's soldiers and so had failed to notice that the two whose lives he had little value for had shared a look of agreement. And in that look they found strength.

Voldemort raised his wand high. _'Avada-'_

'_DEPULSO!' _James and Lily shouted together, cutting Voldemort off mid spell.

They had whipped out their wands from their pockets and immediately threw a spell out at Voldemort, their hands fastened together, adding to the power of the spell. They had been able to create such a strong force through this that it was able to momentarily knock Voldemort backwards, something that wouldn't have happened if it was just one person casting the spell. They seized the opportunity it had given them and cast another spell, their only chance of getting out of there alive.

'_FUMOS!' _they yelled.

Suddenly the room filled the room with a dense grey smoke which was incredibly hard to see through to those who had not cast the spell. For a few seconds, Voldemort had no visible target to focus on and in these few seconds, James and Lily took their chance. They were quick as light, quiet as mice, doing their best to give the man no key as to where they were in the room. They darted across the room to Jacobs' body and, together, lifted him up, laying him over James' uninjured shoulder. They made their way to the door and Lily, the only one now left to defend as James was concentrating all his efforts into getting Ian Jacobs out without passing out himself from blood loss, opened it with a flick of her wand. As they left the shack she cast a couple of strong protection charms after them as a safety shield as they crossed the perimeter of Voldemort's hideaway. The caterwauling charm blared out again as they did and Lily ran into James' waiting arm. He gripped her tightly and, just before they disapparated, they were able to see the smoke screen they had cast clear with a gust of wind, an odd clarity hanging in the air. Then a scream of frustration, a jet of green light heading straight towards them, a crack of apparition and they were gone.

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**Thanks for reading!**

**As I say, Uni is hectic so unfortunately, you're gonna have to wait a couple of weeks for the next update. 22nd of October. If I get time, I'll update before hand.**

**Review if you want to!**

**Galindaba**


	31. Chapter 30

**Hey guys!**

**I am ever so sorry for the long gap in the update, you have no idea how bad I feel. I've been having some family problems recently and they've kept me away from the computer. Things have calmed down a bit now though so it's given me time to write this chapter for you. I am still continuing with this story so don't worry, (you know, if you have been which I don't blame you if you've given up on it), however, it may take me a bit longer to update from time to time. Hopefully, things will be completely sorted soon and I can get back to doing this in the evenings :)**

**Thank you sooooo much for your continued support guys! :)**

**So here's Chapter Thirty :)**

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**Chapter Thirty**

When James and Lily apparated back to the Potter mansion, they did not go into the room where they knew Sirius, Remus, Peter and Dumbledore would be anxiously waiting for them. Instead, James apparated them into the kitchen to give them a couple minutes to breathe. When they got there, he laid Ian Jacobs' lifeless body down on the kitchen table and the pair of them stared at it in slightly aghast shock before suddenly and simultaneously finding their way into one another's arms. They stayed in their embrace, neither of them wanting to let go of their hold on the other for they could have lost each other. It was a hard reality and had shaken them both to the core. It took a good five minutes for them to release themselves from their hug. But at this point, neither spoke any words of love of comfort, focusing instead on business, talking only about Ian Jacobs and the state he was in. Even then, their words were limited.

They both agreed that greeting their friends with this sight was not something they were at all willing to do, least of all James. Remus would start to think the worse, James knew, for the wounds that covered Jacobs' body head to toe were reminiscent of a werewolves work. Of course, he also knew this was not true but he saw no reason as to let it get into Remus' mind and evoke the question. Greeting Peter with a sight like this would be incredibly mean. He was pretty weak stomached anyway and seeing a corpse for the first time would be hard enough on him, let alone one mangled and savaged to the degree of Jacobs'. Lastly, James flat out refused to let Sirius see Jacobs like this. If he had his way he wouldn't be allowed to see this body at all or know of his fate. Sirius already placed heavy blame on himself for the man's initial abduction. To add on his death would already cause him to feel undeniable guilt that he would carry with him forever. To add the wounds, the cuts, the broken bones, the obvious painful torture that this man had had to endure at the end his life would be incredibly cruel to force upon him. It would be something James knew he would never be able to come back from. So he refused to do it. He wouldn't let Sirius suffer that way, to see Ian Jacobs like this. But not knowing any healing spells powerful enough to take away all of the damage, Lily only had one option.

She took off her necklace, the one James had given her for her eighteenth birthday. That necklace was the most valuable and special thing she owned. She prized it. James had given it to her so how could she not? It had a delicately thin, white gold chain and extraordinarily rare properties. It was so precious to her, not because of its market value, but because it had a uniquely individual quality to it. Inside the water droplet shaped glass pendent was a single phoenix tear. And now, after almost a year of having it in her possession, she broke it. She held the necklace by the chain over Ian Jacobs' body, the pendant swaying side to side a little, and raised her wand. With a steeling breath, feeling almost as if she was breaking a relationship foundation, she cast a charm. The glass surrounding the phoenix tear dissolved from the bottom up, leaving no trace that it had ever been there in the first place, and the tear fell onto Jacobs' forehead. Instantly, his body began to heal; his bones mended themselves and his skin healed over his cuts until finally, he looked as though nothing had happened, a pinkish glow returning to his cheeks. He looked as though he could just be sleeping and Lily's necklace was now a chain with an empty pendant holder, sad and bare.

James reached out and took her hand, thanking her silently for sacrificing it for him, for Sirius, when he knew what it meant to her. That necklace was one of a kind. He would never be able to replace it. He squeezed her hand in this thought and wanted to say he would make it up to her, that he would find something, do something for her that could compensate her for using her necklace for him, but he couldn't. He didn't seem to be able to find words to talk to her. So instead he closed his eyes and called through the mansion for Sirius and within just a minute, Sirius appeared, skidding to a halt at the door and breathing heavily, almost as if he had heard James call his name and had come running.

Sirius stopped still when he saw the body on the table. He stared at it with recognisable guilt clouding his eyes. It didn't disappear. Even when James told him straight that it wasn't his fault, he just nodded his head silently and went right on staring at the man's corpse. After a minute or so he forced himself to break his gaze and look up to James and Lily who were still holding hands and looking worn, almost as if they had aged a few years in just a few hours. He studied them quickly. Lily looked fine physically but James was injured with a cut on his left shoulder and a clearly broken nose. His eyes widened at his best friend and he demanded to know who had done it to him, what had happened. But James said nothing and Lily quickly whipped her wand out again and healed his ailments. Then both seemed to act like they hadn't been there and when Remus, Peter and Dumbledore entered the room moments later. The topic was wordlessly dropped.

They spoke very little to any of them. In fact, all that was said was a statement to inform Dumbledore that Ian Jacobs was dead, something that was very clear to everyone. Then they had apologised for it and returned to silence. Then they listened. Dumbledore told them it wasn't their fault, just like James had tried to assure Sirius minutes before, and that it was an unfortunate consequence of war. Lily had clenched her available hand into a fist when he had told them that, his tone of voice grating on her, but said nothing about it. When they were asked by their friends if they were ok, they just nodded. It was eerie, the atmosphere foreboding and it wasn't broken until Remus suggested that they go and get some rest as they had been gone for a gruelling five hours and had had very little sleep before that anyway, having had to prepare. Again, they just silently nodded and James led Lily from the room by the hand to make the journey up to their bedroom.

They didn't come out of their room for at least fifty-two hours, it becoming sort of like a haven for them where nothing could get to them. Of course James had to go down to the kitchen a couple of times to fetch some food for them both but he hadn't spoken to any of his friends, knowing that they wanted to know what had happened and not willing to tell them. After initially trying to broach some semblance of a conversation with him, they found they had just to let him get on with it, realising quickly that he wouldn't talk. After he had gathered sustenance for himself and Lily he went right back to her in their room. Lily missed her healer training programme for three days running. They didn't answer any knocks to their door. Their friends tried to talk to them through the door, wondering what they were doing in there and concerned for their wellbeing, but they didn't answer. And if they did, it was only towards the end of their lock in when James began to shout at them to piss off. Because, in actuality, they weren't doing anything.

When they had initially gotten to their room, Lily had silently made sure that she had healed James' shoulder properly, worried that there could be some kind of infection from the curse Severus had used to injure him. She had immediately taken off his jacket, his shirt and his t-shirt and studied his arm for a few minutes whilst he stood looking over his shoulder at her with an indescribable expression, almost as if she was an apparition. When she had decided that it had healed just fine, she muttered her findings and looked up at him, staring him in the eye, a look which he returned, holding the gaze for a couple of minutes before they simultaneously broke the connection and looked away. They didn't speak. Instead, they collapsed into bed, still wearing the clothes they had been in when facing Voldemort. James pulled Lily into him and she buried her face in his bare chest, her arms wrapped as tightly around him as his were around her. They slept for the first fourteen hours, unmoving and warm in each other's embrace beneath the covers, just as Lily had thought about when they were in that cellar.

When they had woken, Lily had taken a shower and changed whilst James went and found them food. Then they ate in silence, both unable to find anything to say to the other. Instead, they kept stealing glances at each other as if they were back at Hogwarts and secretly, (or not so secretly for James), liked each other. Finally, their eyes made contact and the gaze was held for less than a minute before they broke it again. Lily went to find a book to read, a world to escape into, and James went to have a shower. Then they went back to bed and wrapped themselves in one another's arms again. It was slow and quiet and it was not until they were in hour forty three of their lock in that they managed to finally find words. James was returning from his second trip to the kitchen and Lily was waiting for him, sat curled up amongst the scatter pillows on the window seat. As James pushed the door open, to let himself in, Lily had looked up as a kind of impulse. He had opened the door but it had swung backwards and hit him in the face, closing to in front of him. After a brief pause, she had heard him state 'ow' through the door and had laughed. When he came back in, they spoke and they didn't stop. They seemed to get back to themselves in a matter of minutes. Laughter, after all, is the best medicine.

* * *

'Why?' Alice asked.

She and Lily were at her house in her bedroom. They were sat, crossed legged on her bed, almost like they used to do during their last couple of years at Hogwarts only with the exception of there being no Hestia trying to paint their nails various shades of pink. Lily had come over unannounced, needing to talk to someone about what had happened when she and James had initially crossed the border into Voldemort's territory during their recent assignment. She had knocked on the door hurriedly, practically flying through it when Alice had greeted her, babbling on about things Alice couldn't particularly make out. After asking the initial questions, (why wasn't she at healer training like she was supposed to be, where was James, did she want a drink), Alice had taken her up to her room, sat her down and had tried to get her to explain what on earth she had been rambling about.

Lily had breathed and had started to tell Alice about her mission. She left out certain parts of it, not ever wanting to discuss them because reliving it, seeing those images that seemed to forever more be burned into the back of her mind, was almost as bad as the initial curse. No she left that out. Only James would know about that, and even then he could never know the full extent of it. What Lily told Alice about was the beginning of the story. About how Dumbledore's spell hadn't worked and how she and James hid and made a new plan. About how well that plan had seemed to start off, them successfully getting across the boundary of Voldemort's land without being cauterized or killed. And about how, just when they thought they could proceed further, they had been interrupted. That interruption is what she described in detail, down to who was there, the odd spell they had used and, the fact she was torturing herself over, her hesitation in facing Severus. But all Alice had been able to say back to her was a question of why. It wasn't particularly helpful.

'I don't know why.' Lily shrugged, drawing circles on the sunny yellow bedspread Alice had covering her duvet. 'I just did. And that's why we got caught. It was all my fault.'

Alice tried to think logically about it all but couldn't seem to find a way to do so. She frowned in puzzlement at Lily, trying a couple of times to say something before finding another question to ask.

'Does James blame you?' she wondered.

Lily gave a breathless laugh. 'No.' she said as if the sentiment was completely absurd, 'And I don't get why. _Clearly _it's my fault. But he just doesn't seem to see it that way. He keeps telling me that I'm not allowed to blame myself, that it wasn't my fault and how I couldn't ever really know whether I did actually have a chance to get us out.' She sighed. 'I just think he doesn't want to believe it's my fault. He's just trying to make me feel better.'

'Maybe he does actually believe that though.' Alice suggested, 'I don't think he'd say it if he didn't.'

Lily looked at her skeptically, her eyebrows raised.

'Ok so maybe he would.' Alice recanted, conceding to Lily's pointed look. 'But that doesn't mean he is.'

Lily shrugged miserably and continued to draw circled on Alice's duvet. Maybe it was possible that James really didn't blame her for what had happened, for her hesitation, but she had a hard time believing that that was because it was what he really thought. It was probably far more likely that he just hadn't had the time to consider the consequences of that pause, too consumed in his own guilt over what had happened when they were facing Voldemort to even begin to think of any other aspect of their mission. He was beating himself up severely over the fact that Lily had been tortured. And just like he had tried to convince her, she had tried to convince him that it wasn't his fault, that she didn't blame him for what had happened. However it seemed he had one rule for her and another for himself. Whereas he expected her just to take his word for it and to stop blaming herself for her hesitation, he didn't let the same apply to him and wouldn't take on board what she was saying about it not being his fault.

'Why did you pause?' Alice asked softly.

Lily shrugged. 'I don't know.' she said simply, 'I mean, I know-I _knew_ he was a death eater but…I don't know.'

'It's different when you're faced with the reality.' Alice said.

'Yeah maybe.' Lily replied glumly.

They were left in a moment of quiet. Alice had no idea what to say to Lily to make her feel better. She hadn't been there. And she hadn't been in the Order that long. So far she'd not faced any death eaters or duelled with them so she had no frame of reference as to whether a hesitation like that could be a game changer. All she had to go off of was Lily's word and the knowledge of her former relationship with Severus Snape.

'Ok.' Alice said suddenly. She shuffled forwards slightly where she sat as though she meant business, sitting up straighter. 'You used to be best friends with him, right?'

'Well yeah.' Lily said as if it was obvious, 'But that was a long time ago.'

'Ok.' Alice said slowly, 'What's his favourite flavour of ice-cream?'

'What?' Lily asked, looking at Alice gone out, as if she'd gone crazy or something. 'Why does that matter?'

'Just answer the question.' Alice shrugged.

Lily rolled her eyes. 'Chocolate.' she said, 'But I still don't see why-'

'And what was his favourite subject?' Alice cut Lily off with. She tilted her head to the side inquisitively.

'Err…' Lily began.

'He was very good in potions.' Alice prompted.

'Yeah but he didn't like it.' Lily said with a little shrug. She had stopped drawing circles on Alice's duvet now, trying to give her attention to this bizarre conversation they were having, trying to work out why Alice was asking these questions. It wasn't like this stuff mattered any more. 'It was just something he could do.' she continued, 'I guess…his favourite was DADA.'

'And where was his favourite spot in the school?' Alice asked.

Lily looked up in thought, thinking back to the times she had spent with Severus in various locations. They had always gone for walks around the back of the castle. He had tried to get her to go to the boat house at some point but she refused because she didn't like boats. He always did like the courtyards, they had spent some time there. But they weren't his favourite places.

'Just near the black lake.' Lily answered, the answer rolling off of her tongue easily, as if she was simply stating what the weather was like today. 'Course that's probably not true now though…' Lily added.

'Doesn't matter.' Alice said, brushing aside Lily's additional comment. 'You haven't forgotten any of that.'

'Well no.' Lily grimaced as if she really wasn't happy about this. Just imagine the space she would have in her head if it wasn't filled up with worthless crap about Severus Snape. She was sure she'd be able to memorise at least five more potions instead of having to refer to a book for instructions. 'I don't see your point though.' Lily said, raising her eyebrows, wanting Alice to fill her in on what this odd exercise was all about.

'My point is you used to be his best friend.' Alice said, 'That doesn't just go away. You still remember it all and, even though you know what he is now, it doesn't take away what he was then.'

Lily blinked. 'Yeah I still don't get it.'

Alice rolled her eyes. 'Jeesh Lily, you're supposed to be the smart one here!' she said with a laugh.

Lily narrowed her eyes at her, giving her a light-hearted glare. 'Just tell me what you mean.' she replied.

'Ok.' Alice said, still laughing slightly before returning to that kind but serious tone of voice that had accompanied most of this conversation. 'What I mean is, you still remember what he was like when he was your best friend, before all of the bad crap got in the way. And when you faced him in the woods, you didn't see a death eater, you saw the eleven year old kid you enter Hogwarts with. That's why you hesitated because you can't curse that boy. You had a moment in which…you couldn't separate the Severus you knew from the person he is now. You get me?'

It made sense. No matter what she did, she couldn't ever erase the fact that she had been friends with Severus or the times they had spent together. She couldn't forget that they used to go to the park in summer and swing on the swing set. She couldn't forget that he used to come round her house for tea most nights of the week and how they used to go up into her room and play imaginary games with each other, the little arguments they had had over what their game should be. She couldn't forget that it was Severus who had introduced her to the world in which she now belonged. She had sort of gained her own identity because of him. She couldn't ever take that away from him. And she couldn't curse him in the woods because she still had a hard time believing that this boy was the same one who was now out to kill her. It was unfathomable sometimes.

'Are you ok?' Alice asked. Lily had been in silent thought for a couple of minutes, absentmindedly gripping Alice's sheets between her fingers and creasing the cotton.

Lily nodded and sighed. 'Yeah I'm fine.' she said, 'I just wish…I didn't have that history with him. It would make things so much easier.'

'Yeah it would.' Alice grimaced, 'But you can't change it. Like, you don't have some sort of weird desire to save him from his life of…crime?' she finished with a questioning lilt, a bit unsure if she had phrased it right. But what else could you call killing and cursing muggles and muggle-born's? They were crimes.

Lily scoffed. 'No.' she said. 'I tried that when I first started to realise what he was about. That was in like, third year. And that didn't work. He didn't care. He still called me a mudblood and that's it.' She nodded her head in assurance. 'That's it.' she repeated.

'Good.' Alice stated, 'So you don't want to be his friend again. You know what he is. You've had your moment of weakness for your old best friend and that's all done with now. It'll all be fine. It won't happen again.'

Lily didn't look convinced. 'It doesn't change anything.' she said softly, looking down and releasing the tight grip she'd had on the fabric of Alice's duvet. 'I still hesitated. It's still my fault we were caught.'

'But you can't do anything about that now.' Alice said, a sort of comforting tone in her voice as she stated the facts. 'You're just gonna have to live with it.'

* * *

On Thursday afternoon, towards the end of January, Sirius was wondering through the mansion in search of James. He was incredibly bored, having no Order assignments to keep him occupied and, seemingly, no one else in the mansion to amuse him. Peter was at work and Remus was visiting his parents. He wasn't quite sure where Lily had gotten too but he knew she was supposed to be at healer training. Whether she had gone or not he didn't know. He had no clue where she was but he knew she had gone out. He also had no clue where James was but was sure he had stayed in. He hadn't seen him leave at all but, for the past few days, not seeing him had become kind of the norm.

It had been four days since James had returned from his mission with Lily to retrieve Ian Jacobs' body. He hadn't spoken to Sirius since then. To start with, Sirius had resolved, (with strong persuasion from Remus), to just let James get on with it and deal with whatever had happened on that mission by himself. When he was ready to discuss it, if he ever wanted to, he would and Sirius just needed to be patient. But being patient was not especially a strong suit of Sirius' so he had tried to get him to talk. He had been the one to try and start conversations with him when he had come out of his room to get himself and Lily food and drink during the three days that they had locked themselves away. But he had failed to get him speaking. He had been the one to go up and knock on their bedroom door but had been shouted at to go away. And now, he was the one who was trying to find him because, once and for all, he was fed up of the silence.

He searched high and low for him on all three floors of the mansion, getting lost a couple of times and accidentally rechecking rooms. He had inadvertently rechecked the study, the ball room and both family tree rooms. Of course, he had also accidentally on purpose rechecked the kitchen more than twice, returning to get snacks to take with him around the mansion as he looked for his best friend. Then, finally, for once in his life, his stomach served him well because, the fourth time he returned to the kitchen to find some pie, he found James instead. He was stood at the kitchen island counter, next to a simmering cauldron, measuring out some sort of dried up bug on an old fashioned scale. He glanced up as Sirius entered the room but said nothing and returned to what he was doing.

'Hey.' Sirius said, a little bit of annoyance coming through in his voice as he was the one who had to start the conversation yet again. However, this time, James did reply.

'Hey.' he said in return, taking hardly any notice of Sirius and concentrating on the scale in front of him. He frowned at it in confusion, swearing it was measuring wrong. He tipped out the contents of it onto the counter and took out the weights too, all ready to start again.

'What you doing?' Sirius asked, shoving his hands in his pockets, feeling uncomfortably awkward. It was an odd feeling for him to experience during an encounter with James. It had never really happened before.

'Stewing lace-wing flies.' James answered simply.

There was a pause. 'What for?' Sirius wondered.

'Polyjuice potion.' James said. He was giving Sirius no give and take in the way of a conversation. His answers were closed and gave no leeway for a discussion to arise. It was almost as if he really _didn't_ want to speak to him and Sirius couldn't understand why. If James had ever gone silent on him before, there was always a reason and a solution.

There were only a couple of times Sirius could ever recall James stopping speaking to him for any amount of time. The first was when they were in the early days of their sixth year and Sirius had made the stupidest mistake of his life; he had sent Severus Snape down to the shrieking shack whilst Remus was fully transformed, almost getting him killed. James had fixed his mess, saved Severus' life, but had stopped talking to him properly for a few weeks. He had been absolutely livid with him for putting people at risk like that, for putting Remus in that position. He had only started speaking to him again when he had found out his Dad was dying. The other time James had stopped speaking to him was during their seventh year at Hogwarts and it had again, centred around Severus Snape. Through a couples spat with Lily it had been revealed that, during the previous year, James had been the victim of a terrible curse that Severus himself had made up. In this situation, Sirius had been the one to be livid and James had avoided him at all costs to avoid the confrontation. But Sirius had forced it on him, using a sticking charm on his best mate to fix him to the spot, and they had resolved the issue. Neither of these previous scenarios was gonna help him uncover why James had stopped speaking to him now though. The resolves from those situations wouldn't work again. Mr Potter couldn't die again and Sirius highly doubted he'd be able to cast another sticking charm on him without serious retaliation. He was at a loss of what to do and so, he just threw caution to the wind.

'Are you pissed at me?' Sirius asked, his head tipping to the side in question.

James looked up properly at him for the first time since he entered the room. He frowned at him. 'No.' he said, a little bit bewildered by the question. 'Why'd you think that?'

'You've not spoken since you came back from…you know.' Sirius said, having to say 'you know' for the simple reason that he himself _didn't _know. He had no idea what had happened. 'And I thought maybe…you blamed me for whatever happened out there. It was me who let him get captured in the first place and-'

'That wasn't your fault.' James cut in, trying to make him see that he meant it. He stopped what he was doing and looked to Sirius with a fixed stare.

'Yeah but now he's dead.' Sirius stated bluntly. 'He's dead and you had to get his body and…I dunno what else you had to do.'

James blinked at him and swallowed. He said nothing to enlighten Sirius on what his task entailed whilst he was out there, in the hornets' nest, with Lily. Instead turned back to the kitchen side and fiddled around with the scale, turning the heat down on the cauldron that was just boiling air.

Sirius walked a little bit further into the room. He stood directly opposite James with his hands still in his pockets. The kitchen table and the island was in-between them but the distance might as well be greater for how Sirius felt. He had always thought he and James were close. They were best friends, brothers. Hell he was closer to him than he was with his own brother and ever since their first year at Hogwarts he had always told James everything. Anything good, anything bad, anything to do with his 'Black family crap' as James had dubbed it because he was always a shoulder to lean on. You felt comfortable telling James things, knowing he would have a good outlook on the situation, something to make you feel better and some advice to give. Plus he wouldn't tell anyone else which was good. But it had also come to Sirius' attention in recent years that, just as he wouldn't tell anybody your problems, he wouldn't tell anyone his either, at least not about anything that could be considered bad or upsetting. He was so strong for his friends but who was strong for him? Sirius had thought that it was him but now he wasn't so sure. He didn't understand why James didn't want to talk or what he didn't want to talk about. Sirius was sure though that, if it was him, he would have spoken to James about it first thing but James just wasn't opening up. It annoyed and, truthfully, upset Sirius.

He narrowed his eyes at James and grimaced. 'What happened out there?' he asked.

No reply. James just tried to measure out some lacewing flies again, almost like his didn't hear him.

'You locked yourself in your room.' he said, trying a different approach.

James' jaw tightened a bit and he gave in with the lace wing flies, chucking down the handful he had on the counter casually. He spread his hands across the length of the kitchen counter, clasping the sides and looked up. 'And?' he shrugged.

'What were you doing?' Sirius asked.

James swallowed. 'It's none of your business.' he said simply.

Sirius scoffed and shook his head, almost disappointedly at James who seemed to just continue frowning at him. Sirius walked forwards with a bit of an angry bounce. 'You know what, I'm fed up of this.' he said, shaking his head at him again, 'I tell you everything. You're my best friend. You're practically my brother and I tell you everything and you just…don't.'

James took a breath. 'What's your point?' he asked steadily.

'I just think it's a bit unfair.' Sirius said, 'You know…' He shook his head and thought for a second before continuing, a bit of a calmer tone in his voice now. 'I've been disowned by my family and good riddance to them. But do you know what that means? Means you're now my family. And I thought we were close man. I mean, what I said, I wasn't lying. I _do _tell you everything even if it's stupid. But I tell you the big stuff too. And any chance you've had to reciprocate that you've just…not.'

Sirius paused and measured James' reaction to what he was saying. It was true. Sirius had never been afraid to open up on how he was feeling. That was where his bravery came from. He had been called a girl a few times by his friends on some occasions but had never stopped sharing his thoughts, silly or serious. And when it mattered they had always listened. James had always listened. Even to the stupid stuff. And now was no different. As always, James was listening. So Sirius continued.

'You never told me how you felt when your mum died.' he said, that calm quality still apparent in his voice. 'We had a drink. I told you how I felt, even though I knew it couldn't ever be compared to what you were going through, and when it came to it, you said nothing. Hell you never told me how you felt when your Dad died. Or Linda. Not really.'

James was still just staring at him, giving no signs that he was going to speak so Sirius went on again. He began to list things in his frustration.

'You never told me what you thought Remus was when we were in first year till you confirmed it yourself.' he said, going right back to the beginning. 'You never told me you liked Evans until Remus caught on. You never told me when you started thinking about becoming an Animagus until you decided that it'd be cool if we all did it. You didn't tell us when Snivellus cursed you. You didn't tell me when you started dating Lily. And you know, for someone who puts a lot of value in trust, that just seems a bit out of order, you know?'

Again, James said nothing. However, he did nod his head slowly, almost as if he agreed with what Sirius was saying. Still, it wasn't enough and Sirius, through frustration at the continued silence, exploded.

'What the hell happened out there?' he practically yelled, taking his hands out of his pockets and speaking through them with large questioning gestures. 'You came back with a broken face and your arm practically hanging off but that doesn't seem to bother you at all. And from what I could see, Lily didn't come back with a scratch on her but you keep looking like she's gonna die at any minute. What. The hell. Happened?'

Closing his eyes tightly and gripping the counter harder, James finally spoke. He exhaled a sigh as he simply stated, 'We got caught.'

Sirius' eyes widened. He knew it must've been something, whether that be a duel or something, because they were gone for an inordinate amount of time. Nevertheless hearing it in words was different somehow. He swallowed hard, waiting for James to continue, wondering if he would or if he would just leave it there. But he did continue and he shared. However, it looked as though it was hard for him to do so Sirius concentrated every ounce of patience he had into letting him get out what he needed to say.

'We got caught.' James repeated. He opened his eyes but now, unlike he had when he was listening to Sirius talk, he didn't look him in the eye. Instead, he stared down at nothing in particular and seemed to be telling his story to that instead. He voice was wavering slightly as he spoke. 'We were held in a cellar….and she was so, _scared_. I don't know if I can ever get that look out of my mind. And then…' (He shrugged.) 'Avery and Snape came to get us.'

Sirius clenched his fist at hearing those names. He jaw became tight and he waited for James to continue. When he didn't, he prompted him, needing to know one fact. 'Who cursed you?' he asked.

James looked up briefly. 'Snape.' he said.

'Git.' Sirius swore immediately.

James gave a single breathless laugh, a trace of humour returning to his face for just a fraction of a second before it fell again to that look, the one Sirius had equated to him looking as though Lily was going to die. 'Then…' James went on. He looked down again, 'We let them take us.'

Sirius' heart was beating fast as if he was being told a horror story. 'Take you where? What happened?' he asked quickly.

There was a pause. It seemed very long; where Sirius waited for continuation in James' story and James pushed himself off of the counter, folding his arms. Now, he looked Sirius in the eye. Now, he revealed why he had been looking at Lily that way, why he was still acting a bit odd despite having gotten back to basics with her during the last few hours of their lock in. Because, though he was fine when he was with her, when he was alone, this thought consumed his mind. It ate painfully away at him and he couldn't stand it. He hadn't told Lily about it but, perhaps actually sharing this, telling someone, Sirius, it would ebb. Hopefully.

'We faced Voldemort.' he stated bluntly, his voice hard, 'And he used the cruciatus curse on her. Because of me.'

Sirius frowned. He went a bit pale at the first snippet of information, (finding out two people you cared about had stood against the evilest wizard alive today was not news you took lightly), but was confused by the second. He had to ask. 'What?'

James shook his head and looked to the side, his eyes once more focusing on nothing as he spoke. His thought and so his words were jumbled. He didn't understand himself why.

'He wanted to know how we got across the border.' he started. He gave a humourless laugh. 'And I said 'we walked'. I actually answered back to the darkest wizard of our time and…I don't know how he knew…he cursed her to get what he wanted. He knew that I…'

He couldn't finish his sentence. He couldn't finish it because remarkably it didn't make much sense to him. He had always known how he had felt about Lily. He had known for a long time that he had liked her and subsequently discovered that it ran much deeper than just being the thrill of the chase. Chorus' of 'Potter fancies Evans' had been chanted at him by his friends and he had taken them as jokes when he was around them. But he knew it was more than that, even though he was just a young teenage boy at the time. Something about her was different and _that _was why he hadn't given up on her. He had been told many times just to get over it, probably because, as Sirius had said, he had never truly opened up about how much he felt for her, but he could never bring himself to move on. And then she had given him a chance, a shining hope for him, sparking that torch he had carried for her all those years. They had become friends and he still liked her. They had started dating and he knew he was right about he had felt before, that this was more than just a passing fancy. Then he had fallen in love with her and he knew there was no turning back. He had always known how he had felt about Lily. But this was different somehow. Because Voldemort had also known, just by being in the room with them both for two minutes. He had picked up on it and had realised it, even before James himself had, and he had been the one who had spent years sifting through his feelings for the girl. Voldemort know she was his one weakness. And he had used that against him.

James shook his head of his thoughts and looked up to Sirius again. He gave another humourless laugh at the stupidity at what he had done. 'You know I gave up the one bit of information that we could have actually used for the Order.' he said, 'Just gave it up. We could have used that to get _into _his hide out in the future. We could have gotten more information. We could have saved more lives.' He shrugged as if he didn't know as his repeated his point for the first time. 'I just gave it up.'

'Why?' Sirius asked. He wasn't judging him. He wasn't saying that he should have let Lily gone on to be tortured even more just to keep a simple fact close to the vest. He was just asking why.

'Because it didn't matter. The Order didn't matter.' James stated as if he had never spoken truer words in his life. He shook his head as he spoke. He went quiet, his voice turning into a pained whisper, almost pleading for Sirius to understand even though it was clear he wasn't criticising him. 'She was screaming Sirius. She was screaming and I couldn't…' He shook his head and his voice became strong and certain but confused and baffled at the same time. 'No.' he said. 'I can't be without her Sirius. I can't do it. And I have to try and figure out what that means cause I don't understand.'

Sirius shrugged, putting his hands back in his pockets again. 'You love her.' he said simply, 'Everyone knows that.'

James deflated a little. Sirius didn't understand either, at least not in the way that James wanted him to. He unfolded his arms and stepped forwards to the counter again, continuing to put lacewing flies onto the scale to measure out, returning to the task he had abandoned earlier. He nodded absentmindedly.

'Yeah.' he said, 'That's probably it.'

* * *

**Thanks for reading guys**

**Again, sorry for the late update. I'll try update on the 20th of January**

**Galindaba**


	32. Chapter 31

**Hey guys!**

**I am every so sorry about the long gap in update but it seems things are getting worse at home and it leaves me very little time for writing unfortunately :( all I can do is write when I can and assure you that this story is still in my mind and plans and say I will update and write when I can. Thank you if you've continued to support me with this story! It means an awful lot, you have no idea. Thank you so so so so so so much!**

**So this is a bit of a 'mature' start. I'm not particularly comfortable with writing scenes like this but I gave it a shot! Let me know what you think! **

**Chapter Thirty-One everyone! Enjoy! :)**

* * *

**Chapter Thirty-One**

On Saturday, around mid-morning, James and Lily were still in bed. It wasn't particularly unusual for them; they liked to sleep in on weekends. It was nice to just go slow for a day and relax and they didn't particularly have anything to get up for anyway. Neither of them had any Order assignments, at least not until the night when they usually took their shift in watching Dianna Marsket), and Lily didn't have healer training to worry about. Lily loved days like this when she could just stay in bed as long as possible, never having been a morning person. Now that she lived with James mornings were infinitely better, waking up with one of his arms heavy over her waist, her body nestled into his, but still, it didn't change the fact that it was morning. Waking up was difficult to do when you were so warm and settled. Sometimes, however, there were reasons why she wasn't opposed to moving from this comfort. Today was one of those days.

James was sat up in the mid-section of the bed, holding Lily to him. They were kissing heatedly their tongues danced deep in each other's mouths. She had her knees either side of his hips, bestriding him and her hands were woven into his messy hair. She was tipping his head backwards slightly as, for once, she was just a tiny bit taller than him in this position, rising up a bit more on her knees and pressing into him to make it so. She rather liked the power it gave her but did not push him down onto the bed as she so wanted too. His hands were caressing her body hungrily, her stomach somersaulting as he did, making her want to stay exactly where she was just so she could continue to relish in the feel of his hands on her. One of them was placed securely on the small of her back, holding her in place, whilst the other edged up her side under her nightdress. He grazed over her hip to the dip of her waist, pausing there for a couple of seconds as he pushed his tongue further into her mouth. He moved his hand back down momentarily before sliding further up to her chest and squeezing her breast. She thought she'd had the power in this position. But what James could do to her, what he was very good at, was touching her in such a way that sent her mind into instant submission. However, today, he would not have his way with her because, just as he bit down on her bottom lip gently, causing her to emit a small moan at the back of the throat as she always did when he did that, there came a squeak of shock from the door.

James pulled his hand down from her breast quickly and tore his lips away from hers roughly. He took his hand out from under her nightdress, grabbed one of the cushions behind him and threw it squarely at the intruders head.

'WORMY!' he yelled at him in annoyance, 'You have _got _to learn to KNOCK!'

'S-s-sorry.' Peter stuttered, catching and holding the pillow that was thrown at him over his face so that he didn't have to see what the couple were doing. His voice was muffled but you could still hear him. 'I-I-I didn't kn-know-'

'Yeah, well, perhaps if you'd have _knocked_ you would've.' James said, holding Lily in place, straddling him, despite the fact that she had initially tried to move. He still had one hand on her lower back and the other was now resting on her bare thigh. He didn't seem willing to let her go, something which Lily was both dizzy and self-conscious about.

Her cheeks had gone a faint tinted pink over the fact that they had been walked in on whilst James was touching her like that. This incident brought Peter's unwanted interruptions to a tally of four. He had already walked in on them twice when she wasn't living there and once when she had just moved in. This number didn't stop her from being embarrassed though. Still, she, unlike James, was nice to Peter if he interrupted them, something which he seemed to have a knack for doing. She knew he didn't mean to.

Peter continued to stammer in reply to James. 'B-but I-'

'Should have knocked?' James asked rhetorically, 'I get that.'

He loosened his grip on Lily a little, allowing her to sit back so that she wasn't kneeling up, but he didn't let go completely. He glanced at her though and smirked to himself as he noticed her blush; something he always loved as he said her eyes became more vibrant. That smirk went away quickly though when he looked back to see Peter still at the door with the pillow over his face.

'What're you still doing here?' he wondered harshly.

'I-I-I-' Peter stuttered but just couldn't seem to complete his thought. Thankfully he didn't need to.

'Ah lay of him Prongs! I told him to just walk on in.' Sirius said as he rounded into the room, his hands in his pockets and an infallible smirk on his face. 'Well…what do we have _here_?' he asked, bobbing his eyebrows insinuatingly already knowing what Peter had stumbled in on.

Lily blushed furiously, looking away from where Sirius stood grinning suggestively at them both.

James momentarily hung his head in his own version of embarrassment. He could shout at Peter for walking in on him and Lily, knowing Peter would be profusely sorry and too scared to speak out about what he had seen. But Sirius would not be sorry and, instead of keeping silent, would make jokes and exaggerated stories to everyone and anyone. He would make 'hidden' insinuations. It would go on for about a week.

'What do you want?' James asked with a sigh, looking to his best friend with a waiting look but only receiving that same mischievous grin in reply.

'What were ya doin'?' Sirius asked with a suggestive lilt.

'Padfoot I'm warning you if you don't tell me what the hell it is you want and get out I will kill you.' James threatened, raising his eyebrows warningly at Sirius. He would have done the same to Peter as well but his face was still smothered by a cushion so there was really no point.

Lily let out a small laugh and bit her lip, turning to look at James, giggling at how frustrated he was.

'Why you laughing there Pinkie?' Sirius said to Lily with a smirk.

She looked over to him in confusion, not getting the nick-name. Not getting it, that is, until Sirius raised both his hands and tapped his cheeks with his forefingers, a teasing look in his eyes. Lily became embarrassed again, even more so than she had been when Peter had entered the room because, even though it was he who had caught them, it was Sirius who would tease, taunt and laugh at them for it. She raised a hand to her face, covering it from Sirius' view and turning her head slightly away again. Her cheeks had gone scarlet now.

'What d'you want Padfoot?' James asked Sirius again.

Sirius shook his head in mock disappointment at James. 'You never let me have any fun do you?'

'Uggh.' James sighed, hanging his own head back.

'Bit frustrated there Prongs?' Sirius leered, 'Evans you wanna hive him a hand-'

'Padfoot!' James said loudly, throwing his head forwards again and looking tiredly at his best friend.

'Alright keep your pants on.' Sirius said, 'If you know, you've still _got_ them on-'

'One last chance dude or I _will_ curse you.' James warned quickly.

Sirius laughed at his friend's discomfort for a moment, mocking them, before informing them, 'There's an Order meeting.'

'What?' James groaned in exasperation, flopping down onto the bed and finally releasing his hold on Lily who quickly got off of him and modestly covered herself with the bed sheet. James didn't bother. He raised his hand to his eyes and covered them over his glasses. 'Why?' he asked, sounding like a petulant child who was asking why they had to wash the dishes that evening.

Sirius seemed to become serious. 'Bout your mission last Sunday.' he said, the humour seemingly gone from his face. It probably wouldn't disappear completely if James hadn't told him what had happened that Sunday. But he knew now and he didn't seem to be able to keep that grin up when speaking about this.

James took his hand off of his face and quickly glanced at Lily who had looked down at the sheets she had covered herself with. She was fiddling with them as a way of avoiding James' eye, or Sirius' for that matter, (not Peters. He was still under the pillow). James turned his glance away from her. With a deep breath, he pushed himself back up to sitting, his elbows resting on his knees.

'What about it?' he asked.

'They want to know if there's any new information.' Peter said, his voice almost inaudible.

Sirius looked at him with a frown. 'What the pillow said.' he said to James, still observing Peter. 'Why are you talking into a pillow?'

'Prongs threw it at me.' Peter mumbled.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at James who shrugged. 'He disturbed us.'

'Disturbs a lot of people.' Sirius muttered, receiving a reprimanding glare from Lily, with whom he had spoken to the previous week about his friendship with Peter. She had explained that the way he treated him wasn't always nice. He was trying to improve his behaviour and stop jibing him now but, old habits die hard. He rolled his eyes and glanced at Peter again. 'Take the pillow down from your face Wormy.' he said, reaching out and pushing it down from Peter's eyes which were scrunched closed. Sirius rolled his eyes again. Peter didn't exactly make things easy.

'Why wait till now?' James asked Sirius, bringing the conversation round again.

Sirius shrugged. 'Dumbledore wanted to give you some time?' he suggested, 'Cause he saw your faces when you got back? I dunno...'

James exhaled a long breath of air. 'Fine.' he said reluctantly, 'Just give us five minutes yeah?'

Sirius' grin returned to his face, almost as quickly as it had disappeared. 'Only five minutes Prongs?' he mocked, 'That's very quick man, you might wanna get in some more practice or-'

James threw a pillow at him.

'-you know, go to a healer or-'

Three more pillows were thrown, all getting larger in size.

'-just pack it in all together.' Sirius smirked, unphased by the pillows that were hitting him, laughing as they did, shielding himself with his arms. 'Take a leaf out of Wormy's book; take up a life of celibacy.'

'Get out!' James said.

'Whatever you say quick-draw.' Sirius said, still laughing at James as he pulled Peter from the room by the collar of his shirt. He had been stood idly by, flinching every time he heard a spectacularly aimed pillow hit Sirius' arms.

James threw another pillow at the door as it closed, the soft density hitting the wood with a dull thud. Suddenly the door opened again and Sirius peered in.

'You know, quick-draw, there's a potion-'

James picked up another pillow to throw but, before he could, Lily had reached for her wand and shut the door, locking it with a swift flick.

'Not cool Evans!' Sirius shouted through the door.

Lily rolled her eyes at him and shook her head before pulling the sheets away from her legs and climbed out of bed, all prepared to go get changed and head to the Order meeting. But as she took her first step towards the bathroom, James grabbed her wrist and spun her around into him. He had climbed over to where she had just been sat and had sat himself on the edge of the bed. He moved his hands round to the back of her thighs, his head tilted back slightly to look up at her as, when he was sat down, she was just a fraction taller than him.

'I hope you remember where we were later.' he said, a smile tugging at his lips.

Lily looked up in thought, placing her hands on James' shoulders. 'Hmm, Wales?' she answered, looking down to him with a hidden smile of her own.

'You know what I mean.' he replied, tugging at the hem of her short night dress with a few fingers.

Lily smiled mischievously. 'I'm sure I can remember.' she said, a teasing look in her eyes as she added 'Quick draw.'

James narrowed his eyes at her. 'You _know_ that's not true.' he said, standing up, his hands travelling over her, from her thighs to the small of her back.

'Fun new nick name for you though.' Lily grinned, placing her hands on his chest, 'Quick draw.'

'Shut up.' James said, pulling her into a kiss, leaning her backwards a bit until she pulled away.

'Mmm. No distracting me.' she said. She could feel herself slipping back into that place of surrender so she released herself from his arms and turned walked to the bathroom, saying, 'Get dressed James.' over her shoulder.

James rolled his eyes but did as she said. The pair of them got changed, washed up and brushed their teeth. Lily did her hair, James did not. Then they grabbed their wands and were both out of the door within three minutes to find Peter and Sirius waiting for them in the hallway. When they came out, Sirius looked at his watch.

'Dude that wasn't even five minutes.' he said, humour in his eyes as he continued on with his joke from before, 'I think you might have a bit of a problem keeping it up.'

'Everything's in working order but good to know you care Padfoot.' James replied, patting his friend on the shoulder in a brotherly manner, 'Where's this meeting?'

Sirius grinned. 'McKinnon's house.' he said, 'Know what that means?'

'No.' James scoffed.

'What does it mean?' Lily inquired innocently.

Sirius' grin grew even wider. 'Dungbomb's.'

* * *

When the group arrived at Marlene McKinnon's house, everybody was already there, or, at least, the ones who were expected to be there were. Some people were missing for obvious reasons: McGonagall and Hagrid had been left in charge of Hogwarts whilst Dumbledore attended to the Order and Aberforth had been requested to stay in Hogsmeade for the weekend to keep an eye on the children who were headed down to the village. Moody, Mundungus, Alice and Frank were on Dianna Marsket patrol that day and so would not be in attendance either. But that was it. Everyone else was there; Dorcas Meadowes, Arabella Figg, Elphias Doge, Gideon and Fabian Prewett, Benjy Fenwick and, of course, Marlene McKinnon, seeing as though it was her house. Remus was also already there when they arrived having gone ahead of Lily, James, Sirius and Peter to inform Dumbledore that they were on their way. So when they got there, they went and stood with him near one of the bookcases.

Glancing around at Marlene's house, nothing had much changed since the last time they were there; there was still a comfortable looking three-seated sofa and a couple of arm chairs gathered around the roaring fire place that was situated in the middle of two enormous bookcases, both of which were filled to the brim with History of Magic books. The staircase that led to the second floor was still opposite this wall, the only difference there was some tinsel wound around the bannister, a left over decoration from Christmas. Marlene hadn't taken it down yet. She didn't particularly host Order meetings as she had no dining room so probably hadn't thought about it. The last time she had actually had a large group in her home, was when she held her 'get to know you' party last year, back in the beginning of November. It was quite a novelty to see the living room full of her friends again.

The Order meeting was rather short as there really wasn't a lot to say. Dumbledore called the meeting to Order as soon as he had seen James and Lily file in through the door, not wanting to waste any-time. It took a couple minutes for everyone to settle out of their conversations but they did so quicker than they usually would at say, Sturgis' house. He quickly recapped what mission it was that James and Lily had been sent on the previous week, filling the group in officially on the fate of Ian Jacobs, stating how unfortunate it was that it had to turn out that way. Then he turned to James and Lily, as did most of the group.

Lily shrank back a little behind James who had hung his head slightly but was still looking up to their old Headmaster. Their hands were supportively entwined in each other's. They avoided the stares of everyone else and focused on him, absolutely bewildered at why on earth he had had to hold such a formal meeting for the information they didn't have to give. Surely he could have just called them into his office at any time or visited them in the mansion to talk in private. This was quite embarrassing. They had nothing to say

'Is there anything further you can tell us about what happened?' Dumbledore asked calmly, tilting his head to the side slightly as he questioned them.

James glanced to Lily but said nothing. She answered Dumbledore with a silent shake of her head.

Dumbledore paused and looked around at the group momentarily before returning his gaze to the couple. He obviously expected there to be _something. _After all, they had successfully retrieved Ian Jacobs' body. They _must _have been able to get through Voldemort protective enchantments.

'The spell I gave you worked?' he continued on.

All eyes were still on James and Lily. Lily had never like stares. She had hated them really. They always made her feel so uncomfortable. It was a concern she had when she was choosing whether or not to go out with James, knowing the stares she would get for doing so considering how long he had chased after her for. Her caution wasn't without proof as when their relationship did finally come out, (how, they still had no idea. They'd been so careful), all eyes were on them and the glares she received were accompanied with whispers. There were no whispers now. Just silence as the Order looked to them both expectantly. She wasn't sure which was worse. All she knew was, as usual when many eyes were on her, she began to turn pink and got herself a bit tongue-tied.

Luckily, James could handle stares. He now raised his head and looked Dumbledore in the eye. 'No.' he stated unforgivingly, 'I didn't work.'

Dumbledore, who had, as Sirius had said to the couple earlier, not bothered them for this information before so as to give them some time to breathe, looked mildly shocked upon hearing this. He had obviously thought that, considering James and Lily had reached Jacobs' body which was by all accounts in Voldemorts grasp, his spell had work. To learn it hadn't wasn't a great moment for the supposedly great man. He paused in thought as the other present members of the Order shared confused looks, knowing that this meant there was a story to be told. They must have found another way in.

'How did you penetrate the force field?' Dumbledore asked.

James glanced at Lily and then Sirius, the only people who knew he had given up this useful piece of information to Voldemort himself. The loophole Lily had discovered would have long been fixed by now. But if he explained this then he would have to tell the whole story and he didn't want to relive that. He didn't want Lily to relive that. And he didn't want to see the look Sirius had had on his face when he had told him about it again. So he lied. He lied as though it was effortless as the sea washing in and out from the shore on a summer's day.

'We didn't.' he said, standing up a bit straighter, 'When the spell didn't work we hid. Then we waited until a couple of death eaters brought Jacobs' body out and across the boundary to…take back to his house and, I dunno, emotionally scar his family or something, and…duelled them until we had had chance to grab him and get away.' James shrugged, hoping that this story was accepted. He squeezed Lily's had in reassurance as she looked to him with mild confusion. He nodded to Sirius who had a similar expression.

'No new information then?' asked Dumbledore who looked slightly disappointed. He had specifically chosen them for this mission because he believed they were the only ones in that moment who were capable of facing Voldemort and surviving, who would have used methods others wouldn't have thought of due to their unconditional trust in each other. It was hard for him to accept that he could have been wrong and that they had simply used a system of hide and seek to complete their assignment. If only he knew.

'No.' James replied, perhaps a little rudely. But then again, he wasn't particularly happy about the fact that Dumbledore had called a meeting to hear this tale, even if it was one he had made up. He didn't see the need for it. It was almost like a public shaming. Everyone had anticipated something but all they got was a made-up story.

Dumbledore nodded as the rest of the Order deflated their expectations. They all looked a bit glum now, wanting to hear a battle story of James and Lily in the dragon's lair. Not getting it, not learning anything new was boring. Nevertheless, Dumbledore proceeded with the meeting and, although the information the Order learned then had nothing to do with James and Lily's assignment, it was vital.

He told them that he had been informed by various sources that muggle politics were currently spiralling into a state of unrest, a fact backed up by a considerably enthusiastic nod from Arabella Figg. (Living in the muggle world, she had a more well-rounded understanding of the goings on in their government.) The Order was told that, sometime in the next few months, there would be a general election in the muggle world. It was a process which left the political system, the running of the country, vulnerable. So as long as Voldemort didn't reach Dianna Marsket before these happened, new assignments would have to be taken up to protect any candidates for the post of muggle Prime Minister. It would be all hands on deck, something which Voldemort would pray upon. His focus would no longer be limited to planned blackmail anymore, the period for biding his time over. During the general election, Dumbledore was sure he would be placing out random attacks to divert the Orders attention, to give himself the best possible chance to reach whoever it was he wanted with the least interference possible. This was something that they had to be extremely aware of. Because if Voldemort managed to reach a candidate for Prime Minister and place the imperius curse on them or else kill them and have one of his death eaters replace them, rising them to power, Voldemort would effectively have control of the muggle world, (or at least the United Kingdom). Things would not end well if this happened.

Dumbledore called the meeting to a close and he, along with Arabella Figg, Elphias Doge and Dorcas Meadowes, headed down to Hogsmeade for a drink in the Hogshead with a begrudging Aberforth. This only left 'the young ones' at Marlene's. She invited them to stay for a cup of tea, or pumpkin juice, (their choice), and they all graciously accepted. They ended up sitting in a big group on the sofa for a good few of hours, pulling the armchairs nearer and grabbing a few chairs from the kitchen as well. Fabian and Gideon were regaling them all with tales of their nephews, eight year old William, six year old Charlie, two year old Percy and, their shining stars, (for they believed they were their successors in the family), not even one yet twins, Fred and George. They often told stories of their family, as they were very close with them. They were round their sister's house at least four times a week. Nobody minded their stories but when they had to go, it wasn't as if the conversation dropped. However, it was at this point that one member of the group decided to make their own get away; upstairs.

Using Gideon and Fabian's departure as a diversion, Sirius slipped past Marlene, who was showing them out as a good hostess should, and ran up the stairs, two at a time. He navigated himself easily around the hallway upstairs, remembering exactly what was where as if he had lived there all his life. Really it was down to a good memory of floor plans. After years of working on the marauders map, it was something that had sort of become ingrained in him. He went to the door opposite the bathroom, whipped out his wand, whispered _alohamora, _and stepped inside. It was in this room that he knew Marlene's boyfriend stored the overfill stock for Zonko's joke shop. He had been in there only once but, just like the rest of Marlene's house, it hadn't changed much; it was still full to the brim with various boxes of joke products.

He strutted into the room, leaving the door open behind him, and walked over to a couple of boxes, squatting down and reading what the label said. He was looking for Dungbomb's specifically, resolving to only take a few of those in case it was suspicious. Marlene had informed him that Dungbomb's proved to be great sources of distraction for death eaters, that they were so overcome by the sudden stench that you could make a quick getaway and he had discovered she was right. The only problem was, he couldn't find the Dungbomb's.

'They're underneath the boxes at the back.'

'Thanks.' Sirius said absentmindedly before realising that he wasn't alone anymore. He quickly scrambled to his feet and stood up straight, trying not to look suspicious. He turned to look at Marlene slowly.

'You know I thought I'd only ever have to worry about Dung trying to steal stuff.' she grinned, examining her purple fingernails. She was leaning on the wall just inside the room, next to the door Sirius had left open, looking as if she had basically been there the whole time. Her legs were casually crossed, one of the toes to her infamous spider-web boots dug to the ground.

'I wasn't stealing.' Sirius quickly defended himself.

Marlene looked at him, pursing her mauve lips. 'Really?' she asked sceptically.

'Yes.' Sirius stated as if it was the god's honest truth but, when Marlene raised her eyebrows at him, he hung his head and conceded. 'No.' he said with a pout present in his voice.

Marlene laughed and walked forwards to him. She patted him on the shoulder as she walked past, Sirius looking up as she did. He watched her climb effortlessly over the stacked boxes, jumping over them as if it was some special skill of hers or that, the far more likely reason, she had done it before. She bent over and pulled out a box that seemed to be slotted under a bridge of other boxes and picked it up, turning around.

'Here.' she said, holding the box up for Sirius to see before placing it on top of the box he was stood close to. It was between them like a table. She opened it, something which had apparently been done several times judging by the many creases in the cardboard, and revealed a shallow supply of Dungbomb's.

'Thanks!' Sirius enthused, reaching his hands in and taking out a few. He brought them to his nose and sniffed, trying to decipher which ones would be more potent. Whilst he was doing this, he thought he'd better try and talk to the girl opposite him. It was only polite.

'So where's your boyfriend today then?' he asked conversationally.

Marlene shrugged. 'Working.' she stated. 'It's a Hogsmeade weekend for Hogwarts. They needed all staff.'

'Man I miss Hogsmeade weekends.' Sirius said, picking up another Dungbomb's and smelling it. It stunk. He put it in his pocket and continued to rifle through the selection, something Marlene was also doing absentmindedly. Sirius went on. 'No teachers. Trips to Honeydukes. The Three Broomsticks. Zonko's!' he said reminiscently, gripping a Dungbomb's in his hand and giving it a smile as if it could possibly return it. 'I haven't been there in ages!'

'I can tell.' Marlene commented with a twinkle in her eye, 'You keep stealing my supplies!'

'Hey you left the door open.' Sirius shrugged.

Marlene paused and thought. 'It was locked.' she stated.

'Oh yeah…' Sirius smirked. 'Won't keep me out though.'

'I'll try and remember that.' Marlene replied.

There was a bit of a pause. Sirius continued to sniff Dungbomb's as if they were roses, reeling back a little bit every time one had a particularly nasty smell and then pocketing it carefully. He had to be careful; there was only a little bit more space left in his jacket, despite the fact that the pockets were unusually deep. (He had chosen this jacket specifically to wear today). Marlene also continued to finger the Dungbomb's lightly.

'You do realise you could still go to Hogsmeade right.' Marlene said, 'It's not restricted to just Hogwarts students.'

'Yeah I know but it's not as fun now.' Sirius shrugged. 'Before I bought Zonko's stuff to prank people. Now it's to distract death eaters. Besides, anything extra I'd have spent in Hogsmeade is now earmarked for drinks and stuff when me, James, Remus and Pete go to the Leaky Cauldron to…' he trailed off with what should have been an informative hand gesture only it kind of died before it started.

'What?' Marlene asked curiously with a devious grin.

Sirius shook his head. 'Nothing.' he shrugged again, 'Anyway, Hogsmeade's better when you don't have grown up crap to worry about.'

Marlene scoffed and nodded her head in agreement, causing Sirius to look up at her momentarily.

'You ok?' he said, raising a single eyebrow in question.

Marlene shrugged this time. Her grin had dropped ad she seemed to be mulling something over, watching as Sirius picked through some more Dungbomb's, trying to decide between three of them. She pursed her purple lips again suddenly saying, 'Can I ask you something?'

'Sure.' Sirius said absentmindedly, sniffing all the Dungbomb's again and wrinkling his nose at them all.

'What would you do if You-Know-Who threatened your family?' Marlene wondered.

'Probably laugh.' Sirius answered as if it were a natural reaction. He looked up at Marlene who seemed rather taken aback by his answer. He frowned at her and clarified, 'Most of them are death eaters. I know Bellatrix is and…I'm sure my brother's not far behind. Then there's Narcissa and she married Malfoy who definitely is…just saying, if they get threatened, it's their own stupid fault. Why?'

Marlene paused again, that thoughtful look returning to her face. She measured Sirius' curiosity. He had stopped rifling through the Dungbomb's and was now giving her his attention. On a whim, she opened up to him, not entirely sure why she did. 'My family's been threatened.'

Sirius blinked in surprise. 'What?' he asked in shock, 'Really?'

'No I made it up.' Marlene said with a roll of her eyes.

'Is that why you were upset a couple of weeks ago?' Sirius asked, prompting, 'At Sturgis' house.' when Marlene looked a bit lost.

She nodded, remembering it now, tucking the loose strands of her chestnut hair that usually framed her face behind her ears. Her parents had just informed her of the threat against them and she had spoken to Benjy about it. They were good friends and he, unlike her boyfriend, knew about the Order as he was in it. Her boyfriend couldn't know about it.

'Why they been threatened?' Sirius wondered.

'Cause I'm part of the Order.' Marlene said simply with a shrug of her shoulders. She went back to searching through the Dungbomb's, taking up Sirius' method of trying to find a decent one with potency, expecting him to do the same. But he didn't, whilst she carried on, he stood listening to her with his arms folded.

'They don't understand why they've been threatened though cause they've never stated outright that they're against him.' she explained, 'And I mean we're pureblood as well so it's not like he is gunning for us like he is muggle-born's. That's all they keep saying. 'But we're pureblood'. I just wish I could tell them why, you know?'

'Then why don't you?' Sirius asked.

Marlene scoffed again. 'Really?' she asked, looking up at him with one perfectly shaped eyebrow arched in derision, 'Orders top secret. Can't tell anyone.'

'I know but if they've been threatened then they have a right to know why.' Sirius argued logically, something he himself was actually very surprised at.

'Yeah but-'

'Just tell them.' Sirius interrupted, 'Screw Dumbledore's rule. Screw the Order. They're you're family. Just tell them.'

Marlene just looked at him curiously. She didn't answer him or let him know if this was something she was going to consider, but instead went back to the box of Dungbomb's, closing it in silence. Before she went to put it back underneath the bridge of other boxes where she was hiding it, she paused and looked back up at Sirius.

'Thanks.' she said, locking eyes with him for a second and then turning around to put the box back. She crouched down and slipped it underneath the bridge in the quiet that had ensued.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the open door to the room. Sirius turned to look over his shoulder, his arms still folded. It was Remus.

'Padfoot we're going.' he said, 'Gonna have a drink in the Leaky Cauldron if you're coming?'

'Hell yeah!' Sirius grinned, his mood turning around instantaneously at the mention of a good old night in the Leaky Cauldron, picking up girls and drinking with his friends. He turned around fully now and walked towards the door. Just before he left the room though, he stopped and halfway looked at Marlene who was climbing over the boxes again. 'See you later.' he said, receiving a smile off of her in reply.

He then walked out of the room and clapped Remus, who had waited for him outside with his hands in his pockets, on the shoulder in a brotherly manner.

'What you been doing up here?' Remus wondered with a curious expression.

Sirius just grinned at him. 'Stealing.' he said.

* * *

The next day, Remus, Sirius and Peter were sat in the kitchen eating pie and drinking pumpkin juice, retelling their stories from the night before; How James had gotten quite drunk and had spent a good portion of the evening whispering to a wooden pillar near the bar. And then how he had proceeded to fight said pillar when it had apparently began to whisper back. (Remus had written to Lily, who had gone to see Alice, to come take him home at that point in the evening which she had, secretly laughing at him). How Peter had tried, and failed to pick up a blonde haired girl who seemed far too interested in Remus for her own good. How Remus had ended up making out with said girl for an inordinate amount of time, much to the disappointment of Peter, and then had been threatened by said girl's ex-boyfriend, giving Peter _relief_ that it wasn't him. And how, at that time, they had scarpered into the streets of London, leaving Sirius behind as he chatted up a different blonde girl who had a really annoying voice but a killer body. He had ended up going home with her only moments later, passing Remus and Peter down the street as he did, giving them a thumbs up.

They were still laughing about it all when James entered the room in search of something.

'You seen my jacket?' he asked them.

'Maybe the pillar you were hitting on last night has it.' Sirius snickered to the appreciative chuckles of Remus and Peter.

'I'm serious. I need it.' he said, looking round a little bit worriedly. Finally, he spotted it on the back of one of the chairs. He had gone out with it earlier that day and must've left it there when he had gotten back, something he wished he hadn't done.

'You going somewhere?' Remus asked inquisitively.

'Yeah?' Peter asked, hopefully adding, 'Are we going for another round in the Leaky Cauldron?'

'Not tonight Pete.' James said, plainly, 'Got to go see a friend sorry.'

Remus, Sirius and Peter all looked at each other mystified in a moment of curiosity.

'Nice try Prongs.' Sirius said derisively, turning to James who was fumbling in his pockets, seemingly just tucking in the insides, 'Where're you really going?'

He had a hard time believing that James was going to see a friend. They were all there besides Lily who had been at her parent's house all day for the obligatory Sunday dinner with Petunia and Vernon, something James had excused himself from, giving the reason that her father still hadn't forgiven him for sleeping with her. Instead, after he had dropped her off like a good boyfriend, James had gone to Diagon Alley in the morning for a few bits and bobs and spent the rest of the day at home. He said it was a much better option than having to sit through Richard Evans' murderous looks. So Sirius was sure he wouldn't be heading over there. And he just didn't buy James' story of going to see a friend, even though he repeated that that was indeed where he was headed off to.

'Who?' he asked, 'What about?'

'Just an old friend.' James shrugged, 'Just about stuff.' he looked at the kitchen clock, (his watch still being broken), and sighed unthinkingly. 'I've got to go.' he told his friends, surely stating 'I'll be back before Lily is.'

'Ok.' Remus said for the group, as if James' going out on his own wasn't anything out of the norm. He was probably going to visit his parents' graves in all actuality. He had referred to that activity in that way before; going to see a friend. Perhaps it was just easier for him that way.

When James had disapparated with a loud crack, Sirius eyed the spot where he had disappeared from suspiciously. He couldn't seem to find any dishonesty in his words but something still bugged him a little. He knew there was more to the story than James was letting on, just like he had known there was more to the story of James and Lily's recent mission. What it was though, he didn't know. But he resolved that he would do soon. Of that he was sure.

* * *

James reappeared in a small hallway of several flats numbered five to eight. He walked down to find the door that read seven and steeled himself. He didn't know exactly if the door would be answered but he was going to give it a try. He needed help. So he rapped on the door three times and waited. Within a few seconds, the door opened and he was faced with its occupant.

She had brown hair that hung around her face, no longer long as it had been before but cut into a ragged bob. She had grown an inch or so since the last time he saw her and seemed to look slightly older too. She looked at James with hard recognition in her eyes, obviously not too pleased to see he was there. She was just a shadow of the happy-go-lucky girl she used to be. She had changed drastically during the last couple of years of Hogwarts and, evidently, after leaving, she had not become a happier person.

'Potter.' she said coldly

'Jones.' James said in reply with a polite nod of his head at her. He peered round Hestia into her flat and then back to her with expectation. 'So…' he began again, 'Can I come in?'

'No.' Hestia said immediately, unmoving from the door and looking rather impatient with him.

James shrugged as if he didn't care. 'Fair enough.' he accepted, trying to move on and make conversation with her. 'So how you been Jones?'

'Is Lily with you?' Hestia asked immediately, a flicker of hope entering her eyes momentarily as she looked into the hallway, searching for a sign of the red-head girl who had once been like a sister to her. When she didn't find her, her face fell and returned to an expression of moody stone.

James gave a breathless laugh. 'No-'

'Then why are you here Potter?' she interrupted, folding her arms and raising her eyebrows at him, an awful attitude in her voice.

James looked her squarely in the eye and took a breath. He spoke calmly. 'I want to ask Lily to marry me.' he revealed. 'And I need your help.'

Hestia's face dropped into one of slight shock.

James nodded his head slowly and raised his shoulders, his hands still in his pockets. 'Can I come in now?' he asked.

* * *

**Thanks for reading guys!**

**I will try my best to update sometime this month but if I can't I'm sorry**

**I will be trying to keep up with this story as best I can**

**Thanks again!**

**Galindaba**


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